Lazy Day

Fairly short post, reflecting the little I did on my Sunday.

This morning I was feeling pretty lazy and didn’t too much. Once I woke up from my amazing lie-in, my morning mainly consisted of replying to emails and playing draw something. I also watched some old Sabrina and the Teenage Witch and Kenan & Kel, which was a flashback to childhood. Sadly I remembered each of the episodes watched, which shows I watched it too much as a child, perhaps! :p 

At about 13:00 I decided to have a shower and get ready to go out for a bit. I decided to go for a walk around Waitangi, up to the top of Tikitiki hill, if I could. It was about a 15 minute walk and I hadn’t been up there before, I wasn’t sure if I could even reach the top. I was barked at by a tiny dog for the whole walk up to the top of the hill. It’s probably the coolest setting for a TV studio I’ve ever seen, although it looked fairly abandoned. At the top of Tikitiki hill, I had a clear view of the whole of Waitangi, from a different point of view. I could see the entire settlement and bay, as well as Lake Huro in the background. I did have to be careful taking photos, as I was very near the cliff edge.

Self Explanatory Sign

View of Waitangi from the top of Tikitiki Hill

Probably the coolest TV Studio I've ever seen

Waitangi Wharf, with Lake huro beyond the sand dunes

One of the Churches on the Island, although it is generally no longer used

On the walk home I decided to go fishing for a little while, to try and catch my tea! When I got back to the hospital, I thought I’d take some pictures of the Church for my parents to reminisce. I dropped my camera off before taking the gear down to the wharf for an hour’s fishing, or so. I had a few bites, but didn’t catch a thing this time.

That was my lazy day, cheers.

Chathams by Car - Part Three

I went to buy post cards this morning and went down to Chatham cottage gifts first, as they are only open 10-12 on a Saturday. I got a few, but they were quite expensive and not really what I wanted. I went up to the general store, as they have lots of souvenir/tourist type things, but they didn’t have any. The lady in there advised me that the Hotel had some, which was my next stop anyway. I got more postcards at the hotel for less than half the price of the gift shop, but oh well. I just have to decide which one to give to whom.

So, first part of today’s outing was to the Basalt Columns (which I had to ask permission for). They were pretty cool, but probably would have been better if the weather wasn’t rubbish and if I was a geologist! :P

Next stop was Port Hutt, which is where I hoped to see one of the boats from the round the world yacht series (the Oracle). It was apparently coming in to there or Waitangi with a broken mast, but I couldn’t see it at either. There wasn’t much to see at Port Hutt, although I did get a cool photo of an old rusty boat. The bay looked really nice there, but the weather didn’t do the photos justice at all. I thought I’d try to go to the Stone Cottage on the way to Waitangi West, but I didn’t get permission and it was way too foggy anyway, unfortunately. So I drove for a bit and came to Manganui beach, which looked lovely, but the weather there was quite bad. I ate my lunch there (in the car) and took a few pictures of the beach, before driving back towards home.

On the way home I thought I’d risk a quick trip to Blind Jim’s (shark teeth hunting) while I had the car. Just before pulling up to the spot I noticed massive rain cloud coming, but I really wanted the teeth and I was only planning to look for 15 minutes. When I got there, there was another couple there, who I chatted to briefly. Straight after I found a tooth, right where they were looking! I showed them, they walked away to look some more and I found another one, both within the space of 5 minutes of being there. We both left at that point, as the rain was coming at us horizontally and I didn’t want to be greedy. ;)

The Basalt columns and the sea.

At the Basalt Columns. This Island would be orgasmic for a geologist.

Probably my favourite photo of the day! This is a boat at Port Hutt, felt quite weird, like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean.

The two fossilised sharks teeth I found today, at Blind Jim's. Not enitrely sure how it got that name though.

This is just to show how small they are, which makes them hard to spot. They are hard enough to spot anyway, as they have a similar look to muscle shells.

Manganui Beach, which this photo doesn't do justice. I didn't spend too long trying to get a decent photo though.

Pretty self explanatory, but I like to take pictures of the signs of the places I visit.

When I got home, it was still horrible weather, so I decided which postcards to give to who. I only have a few definites on my list, so I wrote those ones. That was today's adventure.

Chathams by Car - Part Two

It was a bit more of a lazy start on Sunday morning, leaving the house about 11:00. We decided to go to Cape Young for some fishing, right on the North Coast. Once we finally got there, we weren’t sure where the fishing spot was, as it was steep cliffs all around. We had a wonder to the edge of the cliffs and it was a lovely view. We were quite high and had a good view, of a fair amount of the North side of the Island.

We then decided to head up to Owenga, down at the South East coast to see Tommy. Erin hadn’t been up there and we wanted to do some more fishing off the rocks. There were two seals playing about in the sea, just off the rocks, but I couldn't get any decent pictures due to the sunlight. It was too rough and windy to fish there, so we headed back to Waitangi.

When driving back in to Waitangi to drop Erin off home, we saw loads of cars looking at something in the Sea. We stopped to have a closer look and it was a Sperm Whale that appeared to be stuck, flapping its tail about. As much as it tried, it looked pretty stranded.

We dropped Erin home, and then Christine and I thought we would try some more fishing down at Waitangi Wharf. After a short while I caught a blue cod, which felt awesome! Christine cut its head off there as it had swallowed the whole hook and she took its guts out. I then caught another fish about 5 minutes after, although I'm sure I had two fish on the line before I brought it up. We were unsure of what it was and if it was a legal size, so we threw it back.

When we got home Christine pulled its skin off and filleted it for me, which gave 4 decent sized fillets. I pan fried two of the fillets, added a bit of lemon juice and some rice – it was amazing! I put two in the fridge, ready for the next evenings tea!

Up at Cape Young on the North Coast, looking West. The blowhole is just out of the middle of the picture.

The second fish I caught, but threw back as we were unsure of legal size and name. I still don't know what this fish is called, if anyone has any ideas?

This is a weird sort of starfish that Christine caught with the fishing rod.

More of Cape Young on the North Coast.

At Cape Young, looking Eastwards.

This is at Owenga, on the South East coast of the Island. This is where the two seals were and you can also see two windturbines in the distance. These are responsible for the Islands power supply, alongside using diesel.

Probably my favourite picture for a while, catching my first ever fish, on my second ever day fishing! It was a blue cod and tasted amazing!

This is a selection of my pictures from the second day, cruising around the Island with the hire car.

Chathams by Car - Part One

Sorry for the lack of posts again recently, I don't do much until the weekend! Two of the nurses and I arranged to hire a car from the Hotel for the weekend. It cost $100/day, plus fuel, which in the end came to $97 each.

I went to pick up the car at 9:00 from the Hotel with Christine. There was an age limit of 25 and you had to have an NZ driving licence. They probably wouldn’t have been too bothered but it was good to have Christine with me anyway.

We went down the South coast road to a spot, through someones land (who we gained permission from). We tried to catch some Paua/fish but didn’t catch anything or get any bites. There were huge waves down there, so it probably would have been great for surfing, but I wouldn’t want to swim with the  great white sharks!

Next stop was up at Henga Lodge, as we had arranged for the lady up there to take us out at 13:00. We went down their land to the lagoon, to visit the moriori cave carvings. Lorraine was a great tour guide, but she was quite scary and I wouldn’t say no to her. She was a bit of a scaremongerer, saying how dangerous the (randomly appearing) peat holes and quick sand was. It was probablt true to a certain extent, but she was a bit OTT. She also took us along the lagoon to see a weird tree, growing in to the cliff.

After that we went up the road to Blind Jim’s to find some fossilised sharks teeth. The lagoon was quite smelly, as the water is quite stagnant. Apparently they open the lagoon every few years, when it gets too smelly. Christine found two sharks teeth and Erin found one. We were there for about an hour and a half and I didn’t manage to find even one sharks tooth.

In the evening we went up towards Kaingaroa and saw the moriori tree carvings. They were pretty cool, but the trees are apparently dying and people have desicrated a few. The Moriori trust have managed to digitally map and make 3D images of the trees. 

We then went back to the Kaingaroa settlement, which is relatively small. The school there has 8 children! We went for a beer at the social club there, although it wasn’t open when we arrived. We had about 40 mins to kill, so we tried some fishing off the Wharf. Erin and I both had bites and could see blue cod, but they wouldn’t get on my hook! We went back to the club for a drink and it was a lovely evening. We each had a few beers on the terrace, looking over the sea and spoke to some chaps from the mainland. Also there was a BBQ laid on for everyone, there was some lovely food and I had some perfectly cooked steak. I'm told we were quite lucky, as apparently the club is usually only open for an hour! We ended up back home about 23:30, after an hours drive home.

This is the lagoon and some cliffs down near the Moriori cave carvings. I like the mirror image of the cliffs in the lagoon's water.

This was just a random tree at the Moriori tree carvings. It wasn't one that was carved and this picture is upside down. We all just thought it looked like a bum, legs and tail!

This is one of a few Poppy's that were growing in the sea shells on the shore of the Lagoon.

Some of the carvings in the Cave, down near Henga. Most of the carvings in this picture are seals, as you can probably make out.

Weird tree that was growing in to the cliff, with a nice view of the Lagoon by its side.

Probably the best picture I have of the Moriori tree carvings and also the clearest carving there.

Another random picture taken at the Moriori tree carvings that I just thought was cool.

 That's all from Saturday, and hopefully the blog post for Sunday's adventure will be up shortly!

Down the Pub!

After the wild food fest had finished up for the day, I was told everyone usually goes down to the pub to get positively wasted. So when in Rome and all that, I went down to see what it was all about with a few of the girls from work. I was told the "local" thing to do would be to have $12, 745ml bottle with a tiny glass, so that's what I did. I didn't actually pay for the first round, but I was bought a "Tui" and it was quite nice.  When I say "pub", it is a bar at the hotel on the island and is no bigger than my lounge at home!

I only planned to have one drink, but the drinks kept coming from the locals, even if I didn't ask for one. I did buy myself and one of the nurses one drink, and so I chose to try some NZ cider. It was quite dry and reasonably expensive (about £4/340ml bottle). Pictures to come. Last night was also the first time I have ever tried JD and coke. It was a pre-mixed bottle and just tasted like coke tbh, but I couldn't complain as I didn't buy any of them!

The band were the same from early, at the festival - the Foxymoronz. In my previous post I didn't exactly rave about them, but they were actually much better in the evening! I also slated them for only doing covers, but then it transpires they are a cover band. I'm not exactly the most musical fanatical person you'll ever meet, so my opinion probably doesn't count for much. The lead singer, Joan Corbett had a pretty good voice and was probably the most impressive person of the band. The bassist and drummer both did pretty awesome solo's, but then again, I don't know what's particularly good or bad. :p This is their website anyway: http://www.foxymoronz.com/

Self explantory, it was quite nice!

This is the "Tui", which is one of the two main beverages of choice for the locals.

Massive 745ml bottle of Tui, with a tiny glass!

This is the Foxymoronz, this is fairly early on before the dancefloor got packed out.

So this was my first night down at the pub and I didn't even have a hangover this morning! Cheers :)

Wild Food Festival 2012

My timing to the Chatham Islands couldn't have been better, as this is probably the biggest event of the year for the islanders! There was plently of food, beer, music and activities! There were lots of local delicacies, such as Paua Wontons, grilled Weka, stuffed mutton birds and plenty more sweet treats.

Most of the beers available were ones I hadn't heard of, although there were a few foreign exports and I was surprised there is no brewery on the island! There were several stalls serving hot foods but not being a massive fish/seafood fan, I went for a safe, meaty option! I had a venison burger with all the trimmings provided and I didn't actually get a picture - must have been enjoying it too much.

Although most stalls were food orientated, I did purchase a souvenir t-shirt for $30 as I doubt anyone from the UK will have one and it's just a bit different from the usual souvenir's available. So feeling like a bit of a tourist, I continued to the food stand with plenty of cakes! There were so many good looking cakes, but I went for a rocky road slice and caramel/choc chip slice, as I couldn't decide. I probably spent about $50 in total but it all goes to the locals and I got my money's worth. :D

When we arrived, (about an hour after kick off) there were children from one of the local school's singing. Overall, I would argue they were quite possibly better than the band provided, who were from Auckland! The band, the Foxymoronz sounded quite good, although they only did well-known covers and didn't appear to have any of their own songs.

As I visited all the stalls and had a general mooch around, I thought I'd go over to the speed shearing truck! There were several categories and I've never properly seen lambs being sheared before, so it was quite interesting for about 5 minutes. :P

Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took during my 2 hour visit.

The Cod Peace Cafe stand was serving hot foods and some souvenir t-shirts (that weren't brilliant). This stall is run by the same people as who own the land at Henga Scenic Reserve.

The speed shearing competition! The guy on the left was terrible compared to the guy on the right. He took about double the time to shear his lamb, not that I would be any good!

This is a probably showing about half of the stands that were on display, most of them serving hot, local delicacies.

This is again at the sheep shearing truck. I was told that the people who collect the sheep hair off are called rousers (I was told). This lady in the photo is a rouser.

This is the Foxymorons, who were the band from Auckland.

This is the venue for the event and is used a lot more in the summer time.

My souvenir t-shirt, which I think is pretty cool! $30, which is around £15, not too bad! :)

And finally, these are my two cake slics from the festival! By the time I got home to take pictures I had eaten half of each. They both tasted as amazing as they look!

The festival was open 11am-7pm, but I had visited all the stalls and had plenty to eat after 2 hours. I'm told it is more of a social event for the locals and it's the pub that will be the place to be this evening! Cheers :)

Trip to Owenga

After work this afternoon, the Dr, one of the nurses and I went to Owenga. The weather was quite overcast and looked likely to rain, but I thought I'd go anyway as I haven't been out all week. The rain held off until we got back home, luckily for us!

Owenga is at the South East of the island and is one of the other big settlements, other than Waitangi. There is little there, in terms of shops etc, as all of these are in Waitangi. Owenga does have it's own fish factory and wharf, as it is a major fishing area on the island. Owenga is generally the place where you can get a fishing boat to Pitt Island, depending on the weather and if someone is going in that general direction! As I said, I took a few pictures at the wharf but I took more pictures up by the statue of Tommy Solomon a bit further along the coast.

Me and the statue of Tommy!

Close up of Tommy Solomon

Me and my mate Tommy

This is just the sign of Owenga Wharf.

This is the view of the coast, just across the grass from the statue of Tommy Solomon.

This is the sign below Tommy Solomon's feet.

This is just a picture of Owenga Wharf.

This is the view of the coast, standing on Owenga Wharf.

So, who is this Tommy Solomon you might ask? Well you can look him up on google for a better explanation, but the jist of it is, that Tommy Solomon was apparently the last full blooded Moriori on the island.

Walk on the Beach

Sorry for the lack of posts in recent days! I've been working 8-4:30 every day and haven't done much outside of work. By the time I've replied to emails from loved ones, posted new photos and had tea, it's usually time for bed. Sad, I know.

Today was absolutley brilliant weather, shame I was stuck indoors most of the day! It was sunny and without wind, so it was hot and probably the best day (weather wise) since I've been here. After being stuck inside for most of the day, I was keen to get out in the sunshine! As the resident Doctor and his family are away for a few days, whoever fancies walking their dog is welcome to. One of the nurses and I thought we would take him down to the beach, especially as he hadn't been outside his garden for a few days.

This picture is of the bay this morning, 3rd beautiful sunrise in a row! Not really relevant to this post, but I like it!

So, this is a picture of the beach that is in most of my pictures of Waitangi Bay. This is between low and high tide and is looking North along the bay.

This is Ruskus! Quite a cute dog actually and a lot better behaved than people made him out to be.

This is still on Waitangi beach, looking South, back towards the hospital and Tikitiki Hill.

These are just my favourite pictures of the day. I have taken lots of photos of the hospital and have kept a personal diary, but I don't want to post them on here, for several reasons. Probably do another post after the weekend, once I have done something a bit more exciting! :p Cheers.