South Island

Ok, so now I am on the south island of New Zealand. This is where I will be spending the majority of the remainder of my stay here. I haven't gone on any excursions of note and as such, I have a limited selection of photographs and stories. Every afternoon, I try to explore a different area close to home. Home is in the town of Ashburton. Ashburton is actually a once bustling farm town that is in the grips of overcoming a failure to adapt to tourism. Essentially it is a town that had a lot of growth in he last decade, but is now in decline.

The town itself is nestled almost in the dead center of the proverbial bread basket of New Zealand. It is a dead flat agricultural center filled with milk cows, sheep farms and crop lands. In reality, it is a perfect location in that the coast is within a half hour of easy driving and the mountains are within 45 minutes. I have meandered into the foot hills of the mountains, but haven't as of yet taken the time to get into the thick of things.

What you are looking at here is a California Quail. If you look very very closely, you just might see why I took this photo. How many birds do you see? If you said 13...then you have better eyes than I do. I went for a walk up the Ashburton River and jumped them out of their nest. Fast little buggers. The chicks can't be more then 2 days old.
Here you are looking at a shot taken while driving (on the wrong side of the road...from the wrong side of the car). It is just south of the town of Methven in the Mt. Hutt area. I was actually trying to get a shot of the clouds.
In the background is a glimpse of the Mount Somers range. These don't appear to be the friendliest mountains out there. Its a rocky, arid environment.

More of the same. Note the tracks and roads.

Me trying to figure out a way to get to the previously mentioned and shown tracks and roads. I still haven't figured out how to get back there. The majority of the access to the back country in this area is restricted to private access. My vehicle isn't quite suited to getting up there anyway so I guess its wishful thinking.

This is John. I ran into John last week (the week of the 12th of January) at Wakanui Beach. It was a tad blustery. John, be it a character of his name or his New Zealand politeness, turned out to be a very informative source of information. He introduced me to coastal beach fishing. It was a random encounter. This is the only photo I took. To make a long story short, I was walking along the beach enjoying the sea air and came across a lone fisherman. True to New Zealand form, he was very chatty, helpful, informative and patient of a green horn, flatfoot, foreigner. It was a very enjoyable meeting. He spent the better part of the afternoon running up and down the beach trying to keep his lines in the water, his feet dry, his bait secure from the gulls and his lunch out of the beaks of the shore birds. He was fishing for sharks and actually managed to catch quite a few. I will be attempting to hunt him down again to see if he can give me more pointers. I was so inspired, that I went out the next day and purchased a fly rod to do some fishing of my own. (Not suitable for sharks and coastal fishing).

I snapped this photo when he wasn't looking.

Wakanui Beach. Despite its tame appearance, evidently several people a year drown on this coast. Evidently the water is extremely dangerous due to severe currents and rip tides and unpredictable rouge waves.
New Zealanders love their wine. True to form, there is no shortage of eccentric labels and brands. The Kiwi's as a whole seem to be stubborn about separating themselves from the rest of the world by being as unique and individual as possible. For some reason, I doubt I will see this particular bottle in my brother's collection. Can you read the label?

That is it for now.