Christchurch to Oamaru



May 12, 2011

From Grandma’s Diary –

April 25, 1914 – Saturday, done Saturdays work churned butter, baked ten pies and a cake, mended.
April 26, 1914 – Sunday, went to Sunday school, read three chapters, had four callers in afternoon.
April 27, 1914 – Monday, done washing, sowed tomato and mango seeds, put my house plants out on porch.
April 28, 1914 – Tuesday, cleaned sitting room sowed cabbage seed, cousin W.S. Goodheart was here in forenoon.
April 29, 1914 – Wednesday, done big ironing, mended.
April 30, 1914 – Thursday, baked seventy fried cakes, cleaned in dining room.
May 1, 1914 – Friday, finished cleaning dining room, mended.
May 2, 1914 – Saturday, done Saturdays work baked six loaves of bread and twelve pies, Paul and I cleaned the cistern.
May 3, 1914 – Sunday went to Sunday school and church, Lucy and Sherry was here for dinner and supper, Harry and Hazel was here for dinner, father, mother, Hazel, Maud and Walter Smith, Aunt Manda Shoup, Howard, Minnie, Proctor, Robert and Gerald Bright was here in afternoon, Roy and Frank Farst spent the evening here, planned to have reunion here 23 June.
It was another busy week for grandma what with all the pie baking and visitors for meals, planting the garden and then topping it off with planning a reunion.
Notes from New Zealand Habitat trip –
May 4th -We begin the touring part of our trip from Christchurch on May 4 by heading South on Highway 1 from Christchurch to Oamaru our first stop. It’s an easy drive but the disappointing part this year was the gloomy weather with light mist and low clouds obscuring the Southern Alps. We did stop at Geraldine a small town about 5km or so off to the west of Highway 1. They have a great coffee shop there called the Berry Barn with meat pies, muffins, etc. We had lunch there, shopped a little, and then headed back to Highway 1 again. This has become a traditional stop for us. While we were there we crossed paths with Dwight and Marilyn one of the other Habitat team couples.
We checked in at the Oamaru Top 10 campground and were picked up by the Penguin Express to go see some penguins. At the first spot we hike a ways to a bluff over the Pacific and watch for the yellow eyed penguins to come in from fishing. We only saw one or two come across the beach and go up the hill side. A little disappointing but as we were walking out the path we saw three or four just 20 feet or so below the path. This was really an up close viewing. The yellow eyed are endangered and we considered it an honor to see even a few of this group that is reportedly to be about 20 or so.
May 5th – We left Oamaru and headed on south down to Dunedin. Along the way we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders. These are amazing rocks some of which are almost 10 feet in diameter and almost perfectly round. After crawling around and taking pictures of the rocks we headed on down to Dunedin. We met up with Dwight and Marilyn and along with Richard the five of us headed up the Otago peninsula to the Royal Albatross Center at the very north tip of the peninsula. This is the only breeding grounds for albatross that is land accessible. At the Center we saw the movie about the albatross and then went with the naturalist to the observation post where you can observe the chicks close by. Very cool all in all. Luck was with us and a couple of the parents were coming and going and with their almost 10 foot wingspans are very majestic in flight. They hardly ever flap a wing and when taking off they just step into the wind and away they go.
Life is Good here in Kiwi land.

Left click on picture to enlarge.