Motel adventures and rare creatures

Christchurch in the rain

View from the boat in Milton Sound

By the side of the road nearDunedin!

Rainbow from car window

Sea Lions on the Beach Otago Peninsular

We have found staying in motels the easiest way to self cater and find accomodation at reasonable cost. However it hasn't always worked out as we expected. One morning this week in Portobello village on the Otega Peninsula, we were awoken at 6 by what sounded like an air-raid siren. On automatic Israeli reflex, we rushed outside in our pyjamas (at 2 degrees C), only to discover that it was the alarm from the local fire station, which was a few metres away. Later we were told that a car had skidded on the icy bay road and "fallen into the drink", a regular occurence for the early morning going to work traffic.

We usually find ourselves the only inhabitants of these motels as it is the tourist off-season at present, but on Thursday morning an elderly gentleman next door began chatting. When he realised we were "Jews from Israel", his joy knew no bounds. He recited the 23 psalm-being a retired sheep farmer, this was appropriate- and pressed religious pamphlets on us. We have promised to send a postcard from the Holy Land.

The natural phenomena still manage to overwhelm us. We can't believe that we had the privelege to sail on a fiord, watching seals bask on the rocks and dolphins play, or wander on an isloated beach among exhausted sea-lions, who sleep deeply as they build up their oxygen levels ready for their next spate of deep sea diving for food. On a couple of occasions, we witnessed-from nature hides- shy yellow penguins and little blue penguins return to shore at the end of a day or more of fishing out at sea. We were amazed suddenly to see an immense glowing rainbow, its colours so intense, and next day to watch a mythical albatross glide in on its 3 metre wingspan to feed its young.

Tomorrow we fly to Tasmania, after a fascinating shabbat in Christchurch, which is a sepatate story altogether.

Is anyone reading this blog apart from our close family?

Marilyn and Maurice