If you'd like to start again at the beginning, I have updated the previous posts on the trip with more photos and links. (Navigation to the next post in order is down the right side.)
Christchurch - Sydney
Sunday started off clear and sunny and I headed into the city to the Arts Centre for the Sunday Markets. They were not as busy as the Nelson Markets had been. As well as the market stalls, there are many shops, galleries and studios. The Christchurch Guild of Weavers and Spinners have their guild rooms here. I am jealous.
At Wool, Yarn and Fibres (downstairs in the same building as the guild) there was an awesome range of fibres and yarns as well as made garments. Two lovely ladies were in charge of the shop and I had a chat to them as I decided on what to buy.
They had some lovely merino fibre, but I have so much Aussie merino... I came away with some natural grey alpaca blended with silk and merino. I browsed at a lot of jewellery and woodworking shops, but nothing 'must have' came my way. I had two hours on a parking meter, and when that was up there was little parking nearby to be had, and a parking ranger was busy booking cars. A cold change with possible hail was forecast, so I decided to grab some lunch and head back to the hotel. I spent a lazy afternoon doing little and watching the weather become wild outside.
On Monday the weather was fine, but it was windy and cold. It looked like it could be 20 degrees outside, but it was nine! I drove to Hands Ashford for a look around the shop. They had a good range of yarns, though it was still small. Lots of other crafts were also represented. By this point I feared being able to get everything in my suitcase and wasn't willing to buy anything much.
I took a bus into the city and returned to the Arts Centre to finish off seeing some places I hadn't had time for on Sunday. I visited the exhibits on Sir Ernest Rutherford in Rutherford's Den, then made my way across to Canterbury Museum. There were many families at the museum since the school holidays had started and the Great Museum Santa Search was underway. Various toy Santas, big and small, had been hidden among the exhibits, and the children needed to locate all of them. One, among the bird exhibits, was quite obvious, as was the one over the North Pole (I think it had a sled too) on a globe of the Earth. I spotted another within an environmental education exhibit that was a bit more tricky, but I wasn't really seeking them out.
By lunchtime the weather outside was a little more pleasant and I ate my lunch by a pond in the Botanic Gardens. I then strolled across the city (actually further than I thought it would be) to get to Knit World, a knitting chain store (I also visited the one in Dunedin). This place was large and had the biggest range of yarns of all the places I had visited. I nearly bought some Zealana merino/possum/cotton lace weight yarn, but the possum content put me off (I don't like possum fibre much). I took a bus back to the hotel and set about packing my suitcase and finishing off the last of my cherries.
Tuesday was a nice day and having squashed all my things into my suitcase and backpack (it would have been very hard to have got more in), I checked out of the hotel. My flight home was not until the afternoon, so I went to Riccarton House and Bush to kill some time. The fragment of bushland here is surrounded by a fence to exclude predators of the native birds and animals and you had to pass through an elaborate double-doored enclosure to enter and leave. Having almost always lived close to bushland in Sydney, I find it bizarre that the tiny remnant of bush at Riccarton is the only native vegetation left in all of Christchurch.
The Kahikatea trees are impressive and the bird life was prolific. After the short walk around the bush I spent some time with the ducks by the river. They were very hopeful that I was going to feed them.
After some lunch I headed to the airport and returned the rental car. I was very pleased to learn that as I'd paid the extra excess-reduction amount for the car, the damage to the windscreen would not result in any charge.
The flight home was much smoother than the flight over. And I finally got to see those pesky mountain peaks that had been hiding in cloud for so much of my stay.
The flight landed early and Customs and Quarantine were both almost empty. Quarantine didn't even want to see all the fibre I declared.
Some Statistics
The total distance I covered by car was 2680 km.
Total number of 'stash enhancement opportunities': 28.
Total stash enhancement: 6 skeins of yarn: 900 grams; 4 bundles of fibre: c. 1.56 kg.
Miscellaneous purchases: assorted beads/jewellery, silk skirt, hat; chocolate fish; DVD box set (and yet my suitcase was supposedly only 2 kg heavier, which is not possible).
Photographs taken: 258 stills, 4 videos on Sony camera; 93 stills, 2 videos on Apple iPhone.
Recently in New Zealand 2009 Category
Nelson - Christchurch
Friday was fine and sunny - the warmest weather of the whole trip. I took a walk around town and visited Fibre Spectrum - an excellent shop run by a cooperative of local fibre crafters. I didn't end up buying anything though.
I then went to the World of Wearable Art and Car Museum. No photography is allowed in WOW to protect copyright so I can't show you how stunning the garments were. If it had not been for the video displays of models wearing some of the garments on the catwalk, I would not have believed they were wearable. I'd like to know how hard it is to get dressed in a dress made from wood...
Later on I went to the Bead Gallery in Parere Street (there is more than one gallery). Here, they encourage you to pick out some beads and make something on the spot for the cost of materials only. I ended up being in the shop until not long before closing time, putting together a necklace and matching earrings.
Saturday is the day of the Nelson Markets in Montgomery Square. I got there quite early, and at 8:30 am I heard a stall holder comment that the crowds were like 10 am already. I bought a muffin and Chelsea bun to have later, a bag of cherries and a packet of fudge. I also bought a ring and a silk skirt. I came away with the smell of hot nuts and waffles still lingering all the way back to the car. Mmmmmm!
Then it was time to leave Nelson and drive back to Christchurch via Blenheim and Kaikoura. The weather varied from misty rain to sunny and back again. I stopped to see the seals at Oahu Point. For afternoon tea I had an icecream at Cheviot and was amused by two boys - one on a tricycle powered by a small engine towing the second on a skateboard. I was too slow at getting out the camera for a photo.
On arrival at my hotel in Christchurch, I dragged everything out of the car and to my room for the first time since Dunedin. I have until Tuesday to make all my purchases fit either in the suitcase or my backpack or be mailed home. Some just needs squashing the air out, like the lamb fleece. Some is food that will thankfully be eaten by then!
- Originally posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Dunedin to Nelson
Back on the road again, heading North. I stopped at the Moeraki Boulders, where the tide was out and there were tourists all over the place.
At Oamaru I stumbled across Enterprise Beads and bought some strings of beads for knitting and some spinning wheel charms I will make into earrings. Nothing else terribly interesting on this stretch, since I'd visited Ashburton already coming South. On Wednesday night I stayed in Rangiora.
The Jaywalker socks reached the turning of the heel.
Thursday morning was clear and sunny. I made a last minute decision to take Lewis Pass to Nelson and return on Saturday by the coastal route, rather than the other way around, because the weather forecast for Saturday was not looking good. Mind you, the mountain tops were still hidden by cloud (it's a conspiracy against me!) and road works prevented my stopping at one scenic lookout.
At Brightwater I visited Hallblacks - another supplier of natural coloured fleeces, but she has also got a good range of commercial yarns, and, if it's your thing, lots of novelty yarns including some I've never seen before (maybe that's not hard since I don't usually look for 'dead muppet').
I chatted to Mary, the owner, for quite some time as she is a former English teacher and we were discussing education systems (among other things). I bought a prepared half fleece from a Lincoln lamb by the name of 'Curious'. Apparently the other half of Curious's fleece was purchased by a Melbourne chorister.
After a quick visit to the Visitor Information Centre, I checked into my hotel in Nelson. From my room I had a lovely view of the Church spire.
- Originally posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Dunedin
Monday morning in Dunedin I took a walk down to the Octagon and Visitor Information Centre then visited some (rather forgettable) yarn shops. Then I headed to Otago Museum.
I had the most decadent caramel slice and latte for morning tea at the cafe, to defrost from the cold outside, before looking around the museum. The museum exhibits were excellent and included odd measuring instruments on the stairwell, exhibits on Maori and Pacific Islanders, geology and natural history of the area, as well as travelling exhibits such as on Charles Darwin and a rather interesting one on dinosaur eggs. The museum has lots of hands on stuff for kids. I spent well over two hours and could have easily spent a lot longer there.
While back at the motel for lunch, the rain changed briefly to small pellets of hail. Once it stopped, I headed to South Dunedin to suss out a few more (again, forgettable) yarn shops and a Spotlight, just to see if it was much different to Aussie ones (it wasn't). Then there was more hail. I had a fantastic lamb burger and kumera chips from Velvet Burger for dinner. And it hailed some more. The hail in Dunedin was small, but further north at Timaru they had golf-sized hail that destroyed crops.
Tuesday's first activity was a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. This included climbing many stairs, eventually reaching about mid way up that purple tower, inside which we had to yell 'chocolate' loudly to trigger a fall of liquid chocolate to be released. Splattering chocolate everywhere - erk! I bought a hat and lots of chocolate fish in the shop. I love chocolate fish....
After lunch I took a drive to the Otago Peninsula. First stop was Clifton Wool n Things, which was down a ghastly steep gravel driveway. It started hailing again, and I wondered if I would manage to get the rental car back up to the road. It was well worth it though as the shop had piles of yarn hanks, fleeces and sliver as well as garment and so forth, all of natural coloured wool. I would have loved to have taken home some sliver, but it had too much VM for me to be confident of getting it through Australian customs and quarantine. So I came away with three hanks of 8 ply in 'Gull Grey' and a shade card.
I successfully negotiated the driveway back up to the road (it helped that it had stopped hailing) and continued on to Taiaroa Head. I photographed penguins and other bird life in the rain and enjoyed afternoon tea in the Albatross Centre.
- Originally posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Te Anau - Milford Sound
Saturday was an easy day after several long days of driving. I had just 120 km to drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound through Fiordland National Park. However, the day started with pouring rain. It cleared after a while and I set off.
I stopped frequently to admire the view and to do some walks.
At the Homer Tunnel I went for a walk into the alpine vegetation and took some photos. Driving through the tunnel was a bit of a shock as I felt quite claustrophobic inside it. Mercifully, the tunnel is shorter than the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. Once past the tunnel though, the weather closed in and I had to abandon plans for more walks. I went on to Milford Sound Lodge, my accommodation for the night, and checked in. The rain stopped for long enough for me to do a walk along the foreshore of the Sound. I had a roast pork dinner at the Blue Duck Cafe and then spent some time knitting my Jaywalker socks in the Lodge lounge, much to the amusement of the trampers who made up the majority of guests.
I didn't get a good sleep that night because the rain varied from hard to torrential and made a dreadful sound on the roof. At times it sounded solid - hail or sleet?
In the morning I was told it had snowed overnight. None of it remained at the level of the sound, but the peaks had a nice fresh dusting - when they were visible. It continued to rain. I went on a cruise of the sound out to the Tasman Sea and back that was awesome despite the rain.
Milford Sound - Dunedin
The remainder of Sunday was spent driving across the South Island to Dunedin. Unlike the slow trip on Saturday, I didn't stop on the road back to Te Anau since it rained the whole way. The weather was better from Te Anau to Balclutha, but then the rain returned.
I made one stop before Dunedin, at Milton, to determine if there really was a mill shop there. Yes there is a mill shop, and I knew it wouldn't be open on a Sunday, but I would have still been out of luck if it had have been a weekday as it was after 4:30 pm (Opening hours are 9 to 4 on Mondays to Thursdays and 9 to noon on Fridays). Tantalisingly, the sign in the window stated that they have hand knitting and weaving yarns and Merino and mid micron sliver for spinners and felters. Something to remember for a future trip.
I reached Dunedin at about 5:30 pm, pleased that longest stretches of driving were over with.
- Originally posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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