My favorite part of the trip was this little pig. I really fell in love with him. His name is Herman and is 14 weeks old. He is a Kunekune pig, related to the potbelly and a descendant of the pigs the Polynesians brought with them when traveling. Maybe its because he is the same size as my bulldog and snorts and grunts just like her. Or maybe it's because he comes running when he sees you, and rolls on to his back when you scratch his belly. I don't know. But I do know that I really want a pig now. He lives at Kelcey's Bush in Waimate. It's run by an older couple who bought the property about 15 years ago. They planted trees, put in some baches (like a little studio, or ohana) and set up a petting zoo. Waimate is the only place in New Zealand where there are wild wallabies. They were introduced a long time ago and are now considered a pest. The Ironic thing was that the man who owns the holiday park and raises baby wallabies, once killed them for a living. As he bottle fed a little one who's mother was shot by a hunter, he told us this. I thought to myself, darn! I wish I brought my tape recorder. He sounded like such an interesting character. Later he came over to chat for a while. And as it turns out, I was right. He has lead quite an interesting life. For the past several years he has been going to Thailand to train as a Mahout. This is someone who trains elephants! Wow. Anyway, this place felt good and was definitely the highlight of my trip, aside from petting eels....
The first place we stayed was Hokitika, a small beach town on the west coast. We traveled with our dogs, so everything we did depended on if they could come, if they were tired enough to stay in the car, and if it wasn't too hot for them to stay in the car. While there, we did a little night walk and saw a grotto with glow worms. There were so many of them that it looked like the stars in the sky. I saw a sign for a place where you could feed fresh water eels. We went in the morning and it was so awesome. They are huge, like 3 meters long. There were about 30 of them in a tank and they were all between 80 and 100 years old. As it turned out they can't see very well, but they knew when it was time to eat. Morgan and I got to kneel down and feed them little strips of meat. It was funny how they wiggled around like a baby bird, trying to find the food dangling above them. I asked if I could pet one. They said sure. So I got my hand wet and went for one of their bellies. Just then and employee grabbed my hand and pulled it out of the water. One of the eels was sneaking up to bite me. I tried it again, this time in a better position to see all of the eels. They are of course slimy and squishy, like a Sea Cucumber. Very Cool.
We had Christmas in Queenstown with a few friends who were also there for the Holiday. Ee rode a gondola to the top of a mountain to look out on the city. It was really beautiful with amazingly rugged and steep mountains, and a lake down in the middle of the valley. Over all though, unless you were bungi jumping, sky diving, or river rafting, there wasn't too much going on. It was a very transient place filled with young people from all over the world. In fact, I think we only talked to one Kiwi the whole time we were there. Anyway, we wanted to do something really special for Christmas. So we rode the Luge. They are like these little go-carts that just roll down the mountain. It was really fun. We raced each other and caused a little trouble. After a few days there, we and our friends said goodbye and went our separate ways.
The West Coast of the South Island is the most unique. The lush Native Forrest is everywhere, and swollen rivers and waterfalls are constantly changing the landscape. We saw the Fox Glacier and the Fanz Joseph Glacier. Unfortunately we couldn't walk on them. The trails were closed due to flooding the day before. But they were magnificent. They looked like clouds got stuck on the mountains and just froze there.
We also stayed in Kaikoura, which is like San Luis Obispo California in the 1950's. I really fell in love with that place. I think it was because it reminded me of home, but more peaceful and fewer people.
Christchurch was a neat place. Morgan looked up dog parks in the area and found and awesome one. It was all fenced off with two agility courses and a river running down the middle. Miles chased other dogs while Tobi swam in the river. Earlier that day we took them to a lake where we all swam around too. Since it rained the next day, and the dogs were good and tired, we went to the Canterbury museum and botanical gardens. It was a great museum. The exhibits were really interesting and easy to follow. And everything was set up Chronologically, from the first Polynesians who settled in New Zealand to modern day.
It was such and amazing trip. The best part of it was to be able to be with Morgan all the time. I love being with him. We really needed this little vacation, away from work, computers, and responsibility, so that we could really enjoy all the blessings that God has given us.
