12 weeks in the Garden City

The time has come for me to say my farewells to the Garden City, Christchurch, where I've spent the last 12 weeks. It is with both exultation and sorrow that I leave the city behind. I'm sorry that my work with Greenpeace has reached its end (at least for now), although I'm happy to not have to fund raise any more. Talking about the same things over and over again can become mechanical and a bit boring even though you are more committed to the cause than ever. Then there is all the rejection that sort of just keeps on piling up in your head; all the mindless morons (excuse me) that don't give a damn or don't even give you the opportunity of explaining why you are knocking on their door.

The Avon river flowing through Christchurch.

Fund raising in Christchurch has also been a lot more difficult than in Tauranga. A testament to this are the seven people who started working with me and the team leader Vivienne since I arrived, but didn't make target and thus lost their jobs. This last week, it was only the two of us working together. I guess the fact that I've been able to hang in there for the past three months shows I'm fairly decent at the job, as well as the offer of long term employment and visa sponsorship I got. :-)

So, right now it doesn't feel like I'm ever going to work as a fundraiser again, but there are other positions within an environmental organisation like Greenpeace. Never say never though; travelling through Australia needs to be funded somehow too...

For some time now I've had the intention to show you some pictures of the house I've been living in. Because of the unfortunate event of my camera making hard contact with a piece of unyielding rock, and the delay in getting a new box of highly sophisticated optics, you've had to wait until now. It may seem a bit ironic of me to not post the pictures before the eve of my departure, but I assure you this has been entirely unintentional.

It has been very satisfying to be on my own here in the second largest city in NZ. I've spent a lot of time reading lots of books borrowed from the excellent city library. I've also swam a few times a week, cooked good vegetarian food, slept long in the mornings and done no touristy things whatsoever. The downside of working every weekday evening is that it pretty much totally screws up any chance at a social life. Especially in a place where you know no one. However, it hasn't bothered me much. I've enjoyed all the me-time as it's something you don't get a lot of when travelling together with someone else. I haven't even got to know my flatmates that well (at least not compared to in Tauranga), but that's not my fault alone. The four of us all have different routines and worked different times, so our hours-at-home haven't overlapped that often.

The house JBB lived in in Christchurch, seen from the garden at the back.

Although leaving my little corner of this house fills me with a bit of nostalgia, I'm very much looking forward to what lies beyond the current horizon. When I leave early tomorrow morning I'm looking at a week of travelling on my own before meeting up with Giigan in Taupo on the North Island. There we'll go bungy jumping, skydiving and skiing (jippii!), before leaving NZ on July 20. Three weeks on Tonga is what our flight tickets say before setting foot on Australian soil. Almost a year will have passed since we left Finland by the time we breathe the warm air of Sydney for the first time on August 11.

One thing I'm certainly not going to miss about Christchurch is the cold (nights ~0 °C, daytime 7-10 °C). Sadly the house I've been living in is a typical kiwi house, meaning there is no insulation to keep the heat inside. More than once I've had my breath rise like a ghost in front of me when I've got out of bed in the morning. And can you believe that the curtains will move when there's a gale outside?! It's a pleasure to say good riddance to the chilly Christchurch conditions; warmer latitudes, here I come!

P.S. Packing was a bitch. Is my stuff multiplying on its own or what?

You can check the pics by clicking this link if you missed the embedded link in the text.

Albatrosses and Blue Penguins

Today I'm going to finish telling you about our road trip together with Giigan's parents Eeva-Inkeri and Jaakko. Last time I left us in Queenstown, which was more or less only a eat-well-and-get-a-good-night's-sleep stop for us. The following morning we continued to Te Anau and Milford Sound, which we've already told you about. We were supposed to go on a cruise on Doubtful Sound the very next day (11th March), but a problem had occured with the operator's ship, so the cruise got cancelled. At first we were a bit annoyed by this unfortunate turn of events, but we quickly recovered and came up with alternative plans, mainly to the benefit of our distinguished guests.

While Giigan and I laboured in the kitchen of our hostel, earning remarks like "that's the best meal I've ever seen cooked at a backpackers'", Eeva-Inkeri and Jaakko went on a half-day tour to the Manapouri underground powerstation (more on it in a later blog post). In the evening, with only minutes to spare, we had time to drive them to the Te Anau cinema screening an exclusive 30 minute scenic film giving a unique bird's eye perspective of the Southwest corner of NZ, before rushing them to a tour of the glowworm caves in Te Anau. A few speed limits might have been broken that day, but I dare say a day can't be much more successful than that.

Ready for a day on the road.

Leaving Te Anau the next day, we drove to rainy Invercargill, where we quenched our thirst at the Invercargill Brewery and visited the Southland Museum. Most of the daylight left was spent driving to Dunedin, where we stayed the night. Fortunately the weather cleared up the next morning, and we had a great time showing the Otago Peninsula to Jaakko and Eeva-Inkeri. At the Albatross Centre on the tip of the peninsula, we even saw a couple of Royal Albatrosses lazily soar past. Mine and Giigan's highlight was visiting the Emerson's brewery, whose Pilsner was the first organic beer in NZ. Emerson's beers remain some of our absolute favourites over here.

Good times in Dunedin.

After a brief visit to Baldwin Street - allegedly the steepest street in the world - we left Dunedin and headed for Oamaru. We've written about Oamaru and Dunedin before, so I won't go into much detail again. Suffice it to say, that in Oamaru we visited the Blue Penguin colony. Blue Penguins are also called Little Penguins, because they don't grow taller than 25-40 cm. Their eyes and backsides are a beautiful blue color. They're quite charming creatures. For $20 you can watch them from a gallery as they come home just after sunset. Watching their arrival is very enchanting, partly because they behave so adorably.

In Oamaru the penguins have to climb a rocky ramp out of the water and cross a gravel walking track in order to reach their colony, comprising some 20 burrows on a green lawn. If this doesn't sound scary enough, most of the time there's a fur seal or two dozing not far away on the gravel track. Luckily for the blue penguins, NZ fur seals, contrary to leopard seals for instance, don't find the penguins to be any kind of culinary delight.

The penguins who are coming home for the night won't all arrive at the same time. Since they don't like moving alone over scary terrain on land, they'll wait for a few buddies to arrive before attempting to cross the gravel track. Even in numbers, scuttling the 3 or 4 metres from the edge of the ramp to the relative safety of the lawn, is no trivial undertaking. The group of four or so penguins will hesitate just on the edge of the gravel track, backtrack, inch a few feet forward, repeat, and wait for a leader that won't arrive, sometimes for a surprisingly long time. A serious attempt to cross is usually a result of the other penguins shoving one to the head of the pack, or everyone except one taking a step back. Once some penguins start crossing though, the whole business is over in just a few seconds, as no one wants to be left behind or be the last.

Something of a joke on the road to the penguin colony.

Watching this is very comical. Sorry to dissapoint you though: no pictures were allowed to be taken of the penguins, not even without a flash (thanks to all Asian tourists who can't operate their cameras properly). Here's an external picture of some blue penguins if you're curious as to their appearance.

Our last full day (14th March) in the company of Giigan's parents was spent walking along said gravel track that the penguins were afraid to cross, visiting the other attractions in Oamaru (Whitestone cheese factory, NZ Malt Whisky Company, Victorian-style buildings, etc.) and driving back to Christchurch. In the evening we celebrated the successful road trip at the Italian restaurant Cafe Valentino, eating and drinking like kings and queens one last time (kova paluu arkeen koitti meitä tämän jälkeen...).

The chefs at Cafe Valentino know how to put a smile on Giigan's face.

Many thanks to Eeva-Inkeri and Jaakko for visiting us here on the other side of the world. We enjoyed every second of your visit!

MORE PICTURES are available through this link.

Ponderings on the voyage...

My intention was to first just say a few words about the past week and tell you about Milford Sound. However, my writing got a bit out of hand, so I will leave this as it is and later in the week (aiming for Wednesday) publish the story of one of the most beautiful fiords on this planet.

On Wednesday and Thursday night I had the great pleasure of meeting up with my English cousin Paul and his mate Jim, who are on a 'round the world trip. Having travelled around NZ the past two weeks, they were passing through Christchurch before heading for Aussie. Last time we met was at Grandma's garden party in Vasa last summer, and now we were both on the other side of the planet! Funny, huh? At least we thought so.

On Friday morning I had to wake up earlier than any other morning so far in Christchurch. The reason? I wanted to listen to a talk given by Bill McKibben who was in town to promote www.350.org. Bill was the first to write a book (The End of Nature) about climate change to a general audience, now 20 years ago. He is the co-founder of 350.org, an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis. I won't go into further detail about 350.org because most of you who read this will have got an email about it from me. Suffice it to say, that the session was extremely fruitful and I hope you check the website out and get involved!

Since then a couple of things have been on my mind, but it all boils down to this: fossil fuels are hidden everywhere in our daily lives. Our modern society is built on foundations of fossil fuels. It's not just the petrol you fill your car with, or the coal many Kiwis burn in their fireplaces in winter. One day at work a man told me the fleece I was wearing was made of fossil fuels, and he was right. 100% polyester, which is ultimately derived from oil. But it goes further than that, further than all the plastic products in the world. Did you know, for instance, that petrochemicals are used to manufacture modern medicines like analgesics, antibiotics, antihistamines, ointments and many more?

What happens when we reach peak oil? What happens when we run out?

Although more serious, the future state of modern healthcare wasn't my foremost thought. Rather, it was the realisation that my possible grandchildren or grandgrandchildren most likely won't be able to embark on a journey like the one I'm currently on. At least, in a way, I hope not, because if they could, it would mean my generation lost the fight to solve the current climate crisis.

We are at a crossroads in history. One path leads to business as usual; keep on relying on fossil fuels until the reserves are eventually depleted while the climate shows its ugly, irremediable face to mankind. The other path leads to voluntary, gradual freedom from the dependence on fossil fuels through a cap on greenhouse gas emissions and the price thereof cascading into the markets. This latter path leads to a future without catastrophic climate change, but can only be realised through a shift in the mindset of the human race. A sustainable future isn't one where humans live like locusts on Earth, but one where the relationship between guest and host is symbiotic.

This leads to consider another ideology which is largely to blame for the current dilemma facing humanity. The purpose of life, contrary to what advertisements would have us believe, can't be consumerism, can it? Is the meaning of my life to make ever more profit and more profit so I can buy more products (made of fossil fuels) and contribute to pollution, deforestration and depletion of natural resources (mainly in the Third World since Western civilisation has already reaped the resources of the First World)? Is the answer to life, the universe and everything 42 cars / toothbrushes / vacuum cleaners / plastic bags / bottles / sneakers / circulars / insert-your-favourite-consumable-here?

One thing, probably the most profound thing, that has dawned on me during this journey, which today has lasted for an even 250 days, is that I don't want my life to be about all that. I don't want to make my life a part of that vicious circle. Profit, profit, profit, buy, buy, buy, more, more, more.

Earlier this week I had one of the best conversations I've had so far at work. This man in his fifties invites me into his "temple", i.e. his garage :-) We sit there talking for a good 45 minutes (having a few cold ones too). When at one point his little red-haired boy shows up before bedtime, the man tells me how his father used to take him to a river to fish, but how he can't do that with his boy today because the river is polluted and if you catch a fish there it is likely to come up with five eyes in its head! These are the true joys of life bereaved from us due to the profit-buy-more mentality constantly pushed at us from all directions.

Later he asked me what made me decide to come to NZ and work for Greenpeace. I found myself telling him the answer not because it was a part of my sales pitch, but because it was the honest truth. I came to do something different with my life. I didn't plan to find this, but now that I have, am determined to find some meaning with life above money and worldly wealth.

250 days ago I never knew I'd find answers like these, nor that I would lose others. What I do know now, however, is that I don't want to find myself 50 and not be able to go out fishing with my daughter or son because I've been part of the problem, and not the solution.

Creatures of the depths

The drive south from Blenheim to Kaikoura is scenic to say the least. On one side you have the impressive Kaikoura Ranges with peaks towering to altitudes well over 2500 metres, and on the other side you have heaving blue waves as far as the eye can see. It is a good leg to have a private chauffeur for; me and Giigan certainly weren't complaining as Sanna drove!

Kaikoura is a picturesque, smallish town located at the foot of a peninsula shaped like the tail of a whale. At least if you have a bit of imagination. If it wasn't for the rich marine life of the waters off the coast, Kaikoura might very well just be a drive-through place for tourists. As things are though, Kaikoura is a lively tourist town, most famous for being the place in New Zealand if you want to see whales. Whale Watch is the only marine-based whale watching company in the country. They operate around the year and have a 95% success rate of spotting Giant Sperm Whales. If you're lucky you might see other whale species too, depending on the time of the year.

Together with Sanna and Kaisa, I went on a whale watch tour in Kaikoura. It's not the cheapest thing you can do, but worth every dime without a doubt. We were blessed with fine weather (once again): the sun was a lonely fiery eye in the cerulean vastness of the sky, there was hardly any wind and the sea was calm. A perfect day to spend a couple of hours on the waves spotting the magnificent creatures of the depths that whales are.

As the ship set out, we quickly got to see our very first Giant Sperm Whale because another ship had discovered it bobbing on the waves, preparing for its next dive. Every once in a while we got to see a fountain of spraying water push into the light sea breeze, as it breathed out and the water in its blowhole was cleared. Otherwise it just seemed to float there, content and utterly oblivious to the two floating pieces of aluminum shadowing it. To us, it appeared very much like a gnarled old tree trunk, albeit one shrouded in an aura of suspended vehemence; like any moment, this gentle behemoth could erupt in an awesome display of power, so perilous for the early whalers. Although only a fraction of its immense body was visible, you could feel the "iceberg" looming underneath the rippling surface. Primeval. Majestic in its solitude. A conqueror of the abyssal darkness beneath, whose roof we were traversing like a satellite across the starlit celestial sphere this very instance...

Having oxygenated its blood, it took speed by arching its back once, twice, thrice, and exposed its tail in a graceful motion, rivulets of water running off the triangular flukes like rain on canvas as they rose from one element to another. But before you knew it, this grand gesture of farewell had been substituted by a foam-tipped whirling disturbance in the ocean's natural sinusoidal, tender roll. The whale had blessed us with its presence and now sped on its inchoate descent towards the silent depths. The beautiful monstrosity was returning to its hunting ground.

The Sperm Whale raising its triangular flukes high out of the water before a deep dive.

Reverberating, its engines coming to life in a rumbling roar, our vessel turned around and rapidly gathered speed moving away from where the whale had disappeared. The crew informed us we had plenty of time to try and locate another whale. As Sperm Whales only surface for an average of 8 minutes between their up to 90 minute dives, technology is used to track diving Sperm Whales, anticipating their ascent. Because Sperm Whales use echolocation to navigate and find food, the whales can also be roughly located by listening to the beam of high-frequency clicks they produce while submerged. So every once in a while, our ship would stop and turn its engines off to let the captain lower a hand-held sonar into the water. Through the headset he was wearing, he listened for the clicks as he turned the sonar in various directions.

Through this method we did get on track of another Giant Sperm Whale, but ultimately it wasn't the modern device that spotted the whale. It was one of the crew keeping a lookout on the sundeck of our vessel, seeing the misty plume of the whale's blow in the distance.

Another Whale Watch catamaran and a Giant Sperm Whale clearing its blowhole. The Kaikoura Ranges and Peninsula in the background.

So we got to marvel at another one of these giants, this time a lot longer since it had only recently surfaced. The hissing clearance of its S-shaped blowhole. The lazy sunbathing like forgotten flotsam, a dark void in the glimmering sea. The smooth "wave" of the tail which is the finale of its show; the courteous gesture of parting. "See you again."

Before returning to port, we got to enjoy the sight and acrobatic skills of the highly gregarious Dusky Dolphins. The crew estimated that there was about 500 of these playful mammals in the pod. Like most dolphins, they weren't shy of the ship, but came close and rode in our bow water. Further out at sea a couple of them were creating huge splashes as they momentarily soared above the waves like low-flying albatrosses, only to be pulled back into their aquatic home by the chains of gravity.

Playful Dusky Dolphins.

Such was our excitement watching this congregation of sleek beauties, that we were truly disappointed when the ship had to turn back to port. Oh well.

Moving on from Kaikoura, we followed highway 70 inland towards the alpine town Hanmer Springs. Hanmer Springs is a popular weekend destination for people living in Christchurch, since it's only 1½ hours drive away. Hanmer Springs is the main thermal spa resort on the South Island. Besides getting your skin revitalised you can also do a number of walks in the mountainous terrain and ski in winter. Our options turned out to be pretty limited as there was no snow (February, d'oh!) and EXTREME fire danger in the whole area had forced the Department of Conservation to close all walks in Hanmer Springs. The temperature on the day of our arrival reached a staggering 35 degrees (Celsius)! The fact that the air was hardly moving at all between the rocky slopes of the Hanmer Range made our stay nearly suffocating, but we didn't let it deter us from having a good time.

There are excellent views of a broad river valley if you drive towards Lewis Pass from Hanmer Springs for half an hour. The valley is probably at its best in spring when the snow on the mountains melts and comes roaring down, however, it wasn't bad for us in the middle of summer either. In the evening we enjoyed a delicious self-put-together cheese platter and local wines at our hostel, the Kakapo Lodge, before suffering a poor night's sleep tossing and turning in the heat.

Group photo by the river valley of Waiau River.

Next day (9th Feb) Giigan and the girls tried out the spa (which they were very pleased with), before we drove on to Christchurch in the afternoon. We had dinner and spent a nice evening at the cosy Italian restaurant Café Valentino on Colombo Street. Beware, their Apple Crumble Cheesecake can prove to be a bit too much even for the most devoted cheesecake lover!

Dinner at Café Valentino in Christchurch.

Tuesday 10th February was the girls' last full day in Christchurch before their flight back to Wellington, and ultimately back home from New Zealand. The day was spent sight-seeing and shopping in downtown Christchurch, and ended with a successful dinner (beer and lamb stew) prepared by us two travelling amateur chefs. In a game of Risk at our hostel - the Foley Towers - something unprecedented (and nearly unspeakable) happened: we were both beaten by the girl team in this game of conquest and war, and neither of them had ever played it before! (A clarifying note to all of you feminists reading this: it wasn't the fact that we were beaten by two creatures of the lovely opposite sex that upset us, but the fact that we were both beaten by at-first-reluctant novices, period!) Well done girls! Your skills on the field of battle have been duly noted. We won't make the mistake of underestimating your prowess again ;-)

Time flies when you're having fun, but sooner or later today's date matches the one on the flight tickets. We thoroughly enjoyed having you Sanna and Kaisa visiting us. It was good to see some other familiar faces besides our own, and to share more than a few laughs at the peculiarities of life here on the other side of the planet. The telling in this blog of our road trip together should give our other readers a pretty good idea of what you have time to do in New Zealand on a two week holiday. We sunbathed on the best of beaches, swam in crystal clear seas, got cultural at the national museum, had our taste buds challenged touring wineries, felt the pulse of a capital, admired beautiful endangered species, indulged ourselves at a spa in alpine views, walked through vibrant native forests, goggled at some of the largest creatures on Earth, and much much more. Quite diverse activities if you ask me.

We hope you enjoyed travelling with us and liked what you saw of New Zealand, because (as Giigan and I have been able to ascertain later on) you haven't even seen the best this country has to offer yet; Te Anau, Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, Queenstown... you won't run out of things to see and do if you decide to return in the future, that's for sure.

We are falling behind in our writing quite a lot, but we'll try to catch up as best we can. It's just that too much has happened during the past two months, and there isn't that much time to write, organise pictures and prepare the blog. Anyway, next time we'll tell you about impressive Dunedin, the university city that has a Scottish vibe to it!

MORE PICTURES from this last leg of our journey together with Sanna and Kaisa are available by clicking this link. Enjoy!