Oamaru trip

Trip to Oamaru part 2
The second day we went on the vanished world track. It was vanished so we couldn't find it. Noop we had a map with locations of all sorts of rock formations and fossil places etc. It was like a treasure hunt.

The Elephant Rocks are made of limestone. 24 million years ago there was limey sand on the seafloor. This got buried and slowly turned into rock. It got lifted and shaped by wind and weather. The rocks were used as a setting in the movie Narnia.  The rocks you see with all the holes in it are not far from this place. At this place there is a site with whale bone fossils.

The top right rocks were part of rock formation along the beach. We did that part in the afternoon. After we had a great lunch at a Dutch bakery. He said he moved to Christchurch and had his eye on a particular side he wanted to buy. If he doesn't succeed he goes to Dunedin as he didn't want to sell from our garage.

On our treasure hunt along the beach we came along some whitebait fishers. Whitebait are the tiny young of small freshwater fish. I've eaten it once in a pie. Was good It is rather an expensive treat.

The last day we decided to go land inwards to Omarama and from there to Lake tekapo and back to Christchurch. It was a lot of extra km but we had a marvellous day and with some snow still on the mountains

it all looked amazing

The first Dam along the Waitaki river were we stopped was the Waitaki Dam

Next we stopped at the Benmore Dam, a large hydro power station. Years ago when I was a scouting leader we went with a group inside the dam. It is enormous. Sorry that's all I remember.

The next stop was yep for lunch at lake Pukaki, a glacier lake. From this lake you can see Mount Cook. But not on this picture. The beautiful blue colour comes from the glacier silt in the water.

A client at work told me that there was a road going uphill to the observatories, just before Tekapo. It is steep but on the top is a cafe and  from here you can oversee Lake Tekapo and the whole surrounding area. I was gobs mucked. It was so beautiful

The town  Tekapo

One of the observatory on the top from where you can gaze at the Southern stars at night.

Church of the Good Shepperd in Tekapo at the same named lake

A poem for Computer Users over 40

25 years ago I didn't know much about computers. I typed on a typing machine and the machine had one line of memory. We had to delete a word with tippex or retype the whole letter again when you made mistakes.
Looking back life was as described in the following poem which a friend passed on to me.
 
A Poem for Computer Users Over 40
Author unknown

A computer was something on TV
From a science fiction show of note
A window was something you hated to clean
And ram was the father of a goat.

Meg was the name of my girlfriend
And gig was a job for the nights
Now they all mean different things
And that really mega bytes.

An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity
A keyboard was a piano.

Memory was something that you lost with age
A CD was a bank account
And if you had a 3-inch floppy
You hoped nobody found out.

Compress was something you did to the garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you unzipped anything in public
You'd be in jail for a while.

Log on was adding wood to the fire
Hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a backup happened to your commode.

Cut you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A web was a spider's home
And a virus was the flu.

I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the memory in my head
I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash
But when it happens they wish they were dead.

A trip to Oamaru

First part
We had a 3 day trip to Oamaru about 3 1/2 hours drive South of Christchurch. On the first day we had a coffee stop in the park at the beach in Timaru and when we arrived in Oamaru we had a walk through the old town. At night we went first to bushy beach were the penguins arrive and than back to the backpacker. Here we were not only in good company of our friends but met some interesting people as well
It was hard to choose some photo's because there was so much to see, but these ones give a good impression of Oamaru. Oh and the weather was fantastic. We were so lucky.Next time I show you some photo's from the elephant rocks and the trip back over Tekapo.

We had a walk and a coffee break at Caroline Bay in Timaru, a city of about 43,000 people, 160 km South of Christchurch


OAMARU
Oamaru is a town of about 12.500 people and about 250 km South of Christchurch.

 

Catch my cuteness

There are two penguin colonies in Oamaru ; The blue penguin  is the smallest penguin on earth. They come in a big numbers on the beach at night and we could hear them when in bed. The one above one we saw at bushy beach. It is the yellow eyed penguin. They arrive in small numbers at bushy beach.

 

 
Twilight in the meadow. Sheep grazing in peace. The world is quiet
 

 
Clouds looking into a blue mirrow

The Oamaru coastline seen from Lookout Point
 

 Standing silent and proud

This council building is opposite the Empire Hotel (a great backpacker) where we stayed.

This like many other Victorian buildings in Oamaru is build with Oamaru stone.  Oamaru stone is  limestone which is today still popular with carvers. Because of the gold rush nearby Oamaru the rich ones settled here in the 1860's. Because of grain, wool and meat exports Oamaru remained an affluent town in the late 19th century.

A magic lantern enlightens the night

Oamaru Opera House changes into 4 eh or 5 colours at night. 

Step on Step back into the street of yesterday

My favourite street! Many of the old buildings in this street are filled not only with nice bread but also with the most beautiful paintings, sculptures and more.

A parade of sensation and imagination

Amazing art isn't it If you look for something original you will find it here.

(At the backpackers on the second floor the floor vibrated a little when somebody came walking into the lounge. All four of us startled each time and thought ooh earth quake. Oops false alarm.

Spring in Christchurch

 

Life is getting back to normal here. We continue to be shaken and become little experts  after more than 600 shakes since the big one. You can hear my kids say "oh that was a 4.5 " and we check the internet how far they are off. Usually they are pretty accurate. The shakes are getting less and less frequent though. We can however defenitely say that Christchurch is the city that rocks.
Because of all the distraction we didn't notice that spring has arrived.  The weather is not up to scratch yet
In Auckland the poor baggers were even attacked by a big storm yesterday and at one point 30.000 people were  without power. The storm started 1000 km outside NZ and was the biggest on the planet. Yeh
this is a year we won't forget easily. But anyway proof of spring are all the colourful flowers which decorate our gardens and parks and for months to come we will enjoy their beauty

Spring also means that we are looking forwards to trips and holidays. One is coming up next week as we will enjoy a weekend with friends in Oamaru a bit more than 3 hours drive south of Christchurch. In the summer holidays when my brother comes we will spend our first holiday on the North Island and stay in a little place called Te Aroha because it is such a lovely name. From there we will visit lots of delightful places like Roterua with  geysers and bubbling mudpools. We will go to the coromandel, Tauranga, Mount ruapehu an active vulcano and more. Can't wait and of course I will show it all.

Aroha Marja

Quote of the week

Did something good came out of it?

Today a more relaxed day with only minor shakes. A big thank you for all your support dear blogging friends. It really helps !!

Mayke's painting

To find deeper powers within ourselves
come when life seems most challenging.
Joseph Campbell

Some people lost their home and/or their job, their nerves and we talked today if something good came out of al this?.. My boss had spoken to someone who lost part of their house and that person said the good thing was the rates might go down now and somebody who had a grandfathers clock which hadn't worked for years and  he said thanks to the quake it worked again.

But jokes aside, something good did come out of it. It is amazing to see how many put so many hours into helping others and our mayor Bob Parker is doing a tremendous job. But the best thing is that we as people were never closer together as now. Lots of people do jobs for others, take people in their homes, bring heaps of stuff to welfare centres were some have to stay. On the street and at work we talk to complete strangers, share stories, care for each other, try to sheer somebody up,. On my blog everybody hops in to show their care. It is so touching and so healing. So on the question Did something good out of it? The answer is Yes.

After shakes in Christchurch keep coming

Every time an aftershake comes we are holding our breath. The last big one was just before 8.00 AM this morning and the whole house was shaking again. On the blog of  Four paws and whiskers I found an amazing link

This website shows all the quakes, their depth and the area in order from the first on on saturday up till now. Very impressive. Click on the link to play them of  ; Christchurch quake map

a break through the earth

We survived an 7.1 magnitude earth quake. We were blessed that it was at night, when people were safe in their houses which are built to move in case of an earth quake. Because of the soft soil it didn't do too much damage to the low buildings.We were so lucky but the town is a mess now. My daughter is just back from joining a student group who shovelled mud from the gardens and drive ways of people."
As I type this another after quake rumbles through the house. It goes on and on.

picture from here

Darkness descends on Christchurch

People tumble and shake
There is a break

no metaphorical break
a break through the surface
a break from an earth quake
shaping a gaping hole
ready to swallow
into the hollow earth
Earth spewing filth
all over the place
People tumble and shake
while the monster is blindly
attacking, angrily pulling stones
from the tall, made to fall
structures, sculpturing a warzone
in central Christchurch

Visiting writers island would be a break through

7.1 earth quake at dutch corner in Christchurch

                                            Liquefaction , which is the transition of the soil from a solid state to a liquefied state because the shaking causes increased water pressure.

A loud Roarrrrrrrrrr, rumble, zoooaaaa, roarrrrrrrr at 4.35 in the morning."oh my god look at that wall" My husband was sitting straight in bed. Me being night blind didn't see a thing but something shaked the bed wildly.
Than he jumped out of bed. Aarr just in front of his nose the shelves tumbled down. Boing boing with a thump the wooden shelves and many books fell on the floor. Hubby jumped backwards on the bed again. "The children" I screamed and jumped and run towards their rooms. " Out of bed, dress yourself " We stumbled  in the dark, the ground still moving and shaking like a tumble dryer. It all took 2 minutes but it felt like hours.

After shakes kept coming  and we were all trying to find the torch. "Who had it last Where is it". Yes we were well prepared. NOT! The next scary thing was that the we couldn't get the doors open. The wooden wall was  slightly distorted. We pushed and pushed and finally the door swung open.  We didn't know what to do Go outside stay under the door post. The latter seemed the best. Slowly the rumbles went less. We didn't go back to bed, checked out the damage when the sun came up, checked on our neighbours and started to clean up the mess. A few shops were open on Saturday and the water and batteries were sold out quickly.

We also checked out the liquefaction on the road and in the garden. We heard that word on the radio. Because of the shaking water underneath the earth comes up and is under pressure. It comes out as a yellow liquid spewing through a little hole. There is so much pressure it breaks up the road and builds little sand volcano's. There are a few in our street and you can see one above on the picture.

At night we camped in our house, candles on and cooking in the dark.  Every half an hour the house shakes violently again. We were tired and went to bed early to be woken again a couple of times being shaken and we walk around like cocktails today : ). We jumped in the air this morning when we had water again although we still have to boil it. This afternoon we had power again yihaa. What a treasure that is

The kids don't go back to school yet for a couple of days. There is a curfew for the city centre which is a danger zone. It is protected by police and army at night.

(I was just holding the computer as there was just a huge after shock again The floor moves back and forwards, the lamps are swinging. It keeps scaring you.)

Nobody died wich is a miracle but not completely. Our house and most of the older houses for example are designed to move when an earthquake hits The load bearing beams are sitting on top of the piles with a piece of wire. The only thing what is fixed is the chimney therefore hundreds of chimneys fell down
People keep calling and everybody  is so caring including you dear blogging people. You realise with these disasters that things are not important at all.