New Zealand Day 3: The Catlins and Curio Bay

We bid a farewell to the fur seals and albatross and continued south towards the southernmost point of the south island.

We drove to the Catlins Conservation Park, which is an underrated region of farmland, forest and beaches. The weather was gorgeous, so we found a track to walk and got up close and personal with the New Zealand flora.

Descending into the forest.

Nate heading up for a closer look at McLean Falls.

We found a place surfer's hostel with a spare bed in Curio Bay, which was a great spot. Very remote with only a few hostels and a campsite overlooking the oceans where rare Hector's dophins splash and play.

Our room in the hostel. The place was a bit run down, but the ocean was within walking distance.

We at dinner at Blue Cod Blues, which was the only place to get food for 25 kms. Good burgers and the fish and chips were wrapped in newspaper.

"I've got the blue cod blues..."

Our hostel was just down the road from a petrified forest, which doubles as a burrowing site for a yellow-eyed penguin colony. The Maori name for the penguins in hoiho and they are featured on the NZ $5 note (Sir Edmund Hillary and Mt. Cook are featured on the other side of that note, but we'll get to them in a few days).

View of the petrified forest. Those rocks are fossilized trees from the Jurrasic - pretty awesome!

The penguins arrive back on the beach around dusk after a long day of fishing. Their arrival was a bit earlier than the blue penguins we missed up in the Otago Peninsula, so we were able to keep Roxy up long enough to see them.

I left Nate and Roxy on the beach and went to find a loo and when I came back, this is what I saw:

The little blue rock on the left is Nate and Rox. The little white rock directly to the right of them is the first returning penguin.

We gave the penguins plenty of space as they navigated their way across the rocky beach to their burrows in the shrubs. These penguins are quite clumsy, stumbling and hopping all the way back to their home.

Mr. Penguin as he cleaned up after the work day.

Hopping to bed!

They were really quite amazing little animals and it's amazing how close we were allowed to get to them. Signs all around advised onlookers to give the penguins at least two car lengths of space and almost everybody seemed to observe that rule.

"Don't mind me! Just headin' home!" These people were actually much further from the penguin than it appears in this photo.

We saw four of them before we called it a night. Later that night at the hostel, we told our fellow travelers about seeing them. I said that I was disappointed that we saw only four. The gregarious Dutch fellow laughed and said, "ONLY four? The world's rarest penguins and you're upset you saw ONLY four?" I think he was a bit bitter because they spent five days on Stewart Island and didn't see a single kiwi bird (which is the main reason people go to Stewart Island). We had a good night talking with the Dutch couple and an American couple while the baby slept soundly in the room next to us.

New Zealand Day 2: Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula

We got a bit of a late start (New Zealand is three hours ahead of Brisbane) and hit the road! We drove south towards the city of Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula. One of the goals of our trip was to beat the summer heat, so we figured we should get as close to Antarctica as possible.

The Otago Peninsula is teeming with cool wildlife like penguins, albatross, sea lions, fur seals and, of course, sheep. We refused to pay $30 to see the albatross colony, but lucked out when we saw one fly overhead while we were sitting in the carpark. He was too fast for me to get a photo.

Down the road from the albatross was a blue penguin burrowing site. These penguins, the world's smallest, spend all day out in the ocean, swimming around and eating fish. The head back to their burrows around dusk and there are crowds of people there to watch them make the trek across the rocky beach. Dusk hits at around 9:20pm, which was a bit too late for our Roxy, so we were satisfied to hang out with the fur seals that also inhabit the beach.

Bachelor fur seal hanging around the penguin burrowing ground. Some of his amigos were playing in the waves.

The hostel where we stayed was our favorite for the trip. It was cheap, wonderfully cosy and had a fantastic view of the bay. If we go back again, we will definitely spend more time in this area. There was just so much to see and do!

Sheep that lived next door to our hostel.

Me getting warm(!) near the stove in our cute hostel.

New Zealand Day 1: Christchurch

Nate had a week off from work for the holidays, so went took a holiday to New Zealand. We flew to Christchurch on Christmas morning and spent the night at a Tudor-inspired motel where we enjoyed Christmas dinner. They even had Christmas crackers waiting for us.

Nate at dinner, looking like he's about to be crowned king by the lit chandelier.

Roxy with the kind of creepy headless suit of armour.

Before dinner, we took our rented Yaris for a spin on the winding roads outside of town. We saw our first kiwi sheep about two minutes after we drove out of town.

Hut at a rest stop on our afternoon drive.

There's nothing uniquely New Zealand in this next photo. I just think it's cute.

Baby buns. My Christmas present to you.

Murri Christmas!

Apologies in advance: Our Christmas cards will be late this year. There's a 'postie' union strike on for tomorrow and I put the cards in the mail today at 5:01pm (sure, I'll blame the strike and not my procrastination). They say it won't affect Christmas mail deliveries, but I don't see how that's possible if there's no one around the sort the mail.

Scan of the polaroid we got at the Murri Claus meet-and-greet.

A few weeks ago, the State Library of Queensland invited children to meet and have their picture taken with Murri Claus. Who is Murri Claus, you ask? Why, he's Santa's cousin! Where does his name come from? The Murri people are indigenous Australians who traditionally occupied Queensland. 

Before he arrived, we danced and sang songs about Murri Claus and his life in the Outback. Last year Murri Claus arrived in a tinny (a small aluminum boat) on the Brisbane River. There were some rumblings about seasickness from our song leader, so this year, Murri sauntered up, fresh off the trail and accompanied by a couple of elves riding on miniature ponies.


Many of the babies in my mothers' group had their picture taken with Santa Claus at the mall. We though we would go the non-traditional route with our bub. 

Who is this? Where am I? Why is everyone so cheery but me?

I expected some tears when we handed her over to Murri, but she did pretty well and only got a little panicky when everyone was trying to get her to smile at the camera. 

She was dressed in the Christmas outfit we got it for her to wear on the plane on our Christmas adventure! We're hoping she'll charm the flight attendants and maybe we can get some free headphones for the flight. 


So a very Murri Christmas to you all! We're celebrating it at the beginning of a nice, hot Brisbane summer. While a lot of you are shoveling your way out of a snowstorm or inching your way through a foggy morning, we're trying to beat the heat! Sure wish you were here!

Ta-da! She's one!

From this:to this:

in just one short year. We're going out tonight for Latin American food to celebrate.

Current favorite movie

Escape Artist

I was talking to my friend Katie the other day about her cat Brix. Apparently, Brix, an indoor cat, got his first taste of the outdoors a couple of weeks ago and now all he wants is to get outside again.

It made me think of Roxy. She is scooting all over the place these days. I'm afraid my long evening walks get a bit boring for her when she's stuck sitting in the pram for so long. She also doesn't do all that well when I try to browse at the shops. Instead of climbing out, she tries to scoot out of her pram.

While thumbing through some greeting cards, I turned around and saw this:

Lucky for me (and her!), she didn't have all the kinks worked out:

Those pesky feet sure get in the way.

I don't think she appreciated my laughter...or the laughter of a fellow shopper.

She spends some time every day looking longingly through the security gate we've installed on the front door.

"Nobody knows... the trouble I've seen...."

She's got a game plan, though. Sometimes I find the friends that she's sent to get help.

Her most trusted friend, Giraffe Reimsen. She should probably send one of her friends with legs next time.