27 December 2010 to January 17, 2011
Part 1 - To the South Land-Rover For
... Olivier
After spending a second Christmas as a family summer home in Parua Bay (for Christmas Eve, the pavlova meringue, whipped cream and berries had replaced the log of our country), perched on green hills about twenty miles from Whangarei, Barbara and I are going for 3 weeks of discovery in the South Island.
Without children left with their grandparents, and Tomana Mamina, first appeared, then 70 km further north to Opua on the shores of the Bay of Islands in the beautiful home of Frank and Jenny, called Captain's Retreat.
Frank is commander of the "Clipper Odyssey, a cruise ship of reasonable size, and accompanies Jenny on board, where she works well.
They are currently in the Indian Ocean, and Frank will tell us later his disputes with the pirates, whose scope of action has become alarming in this region, which undoubtedly will require us, in a few months to adapt our itinerary ...
For now, we're not worried: children lead the small tractor (John Deere!) Garden of Adrienne and David appeared, and they will eat ice Pahia.
Marino will surf beaches on the side of Russell, Bay of Islands, or in Elliot Bay, while Adel abuse its new kit makeup and will try all the dresses Shop Farmers Whangarei, ostensibly enjoying the absence of his mother, before deciding for a red dress that she loves ... The mistress
CNED, meanwhile, has decreed four weeks vacation for children, and to ... itself. Well deserved, I think, because in that time headmaster, it seemed to me that the school had operated at full capacity within weeks.
I prepared the Land-Rover, loaded the camping gear: backpacks, sleeping bags, tents, gas stove, gourds, head lamps, dishes ...
On December 27, we take the N ° 1, the main road north-south through the two islands that make up the country. 800 km win for Wellington in 12 hours of driving. Apart from a few km of motorway on the outskirts of Auckland, Road No. 1 is the equivalent of a national home. On some occasions, it even reduces to a single lane to cross a bridge. The V8
our English-hand 4 x 4, which presents some 100 000 miles, is technologically outdated, but it worked fine: if you give him, driving the economy, its 18 liters to 100 (km!), it does not balk at you ... quite comfortably hauling
Around 20 hours, we arrive at the marine terminal, take the ferry tickets for 23.00 for Interislander, and will stroll in the evening in Central Wellington City, the capital of New Zealand.
One of the windiest cities in the world because of its location in the steep hillsides, in Cook Strait, a place often tempestuous, which separates the North Island to South Island.
At night, the sky rolls down large dark clouds, pushed by a breeze promising. We leave our jackets on watch ...
Crossing, usually a little over three hours in the last five. The ferry will have to battle in the gale which hit us just before sailing.
We land, tired, at about 5 o'clock in the morning in Picton, a town protected from the sea by a deep fjord, Queen Charlotte Sound.
Protected Sea, Picton, but not wind or rain: the raging gusts to 40 and 50 knots, heavy rain falling on the roof of the Land Rover parked on a small promontory on the road Havelock, which we used as shelter for the rest of the night ...
Damned! sunroof Land is sinking, a small trough falls down on me while I try to glean some sleep.
Leaving Picton, we wanted to eat mussels (-chips) at Havelock (mussel capital of NZ) in a nearby fjord. Ill we took: at dawn, the storm passes, but the overnight rain we turned the streams into torrents. The meadows are flooded, and we quickly encounter the first obstacles to the wheels of the Land-Rover. Uprooted trees, fording ... We are taking several, until the landslide are growing over the hours.
Impressive.
An attempt to turn back, doomed to failure, we will understand that the road is cut, both before and behind. We're stuck, you just wait. The green and yellow tractors Farmers of New Zealand into action, mail it will take the patient work of a large Caterpillar to free ourselves from the trap.
We must abandon Havelock win (it is therefore failed for mussels), the village is isolated by the waters, and a police car we ordered, the megaphone, to make a U-turn ...
Later the first rays of sun reappeared around Blenheim, the wine capital of New Zealand.
The Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough region, in particular, are well known. New Zealanders have quickly learned to produce quality wines. Grapes and know-how, combined with methods and tools to a modern winemaking has encouraged the rapid development of a quality wine business. White wines in particular, who represent 75% of production is exported mainly to old England, Australia and the USA.
Resuming the day the road to Christchurch, some 300 km further south.
At Kaikoura, while the fine weather returned, we see a Many sea lions (or fur seals) on coastal rocks. The fish are there, and these animals once hunted by whalers and sealers crews have returned in large numbers on the South Island. Kelp, sea algae that cold that often reaches a dozen meters long, is home to their near-shore aquatic developments. The sperm whales
, or sperm whales, are abundant in the region of Kaikoura. These whales, which often move in groups, live permanently in the region. The underwater terrain is cut by deep fissures underwater, sometimes reaching almost 10 000 m depth. These abyssal pits are home to marine animals that are very interested in sperm whales: the calamari, giant preference. This is their favorite dish. Sperm whales have teeth (1 kg per attribute sometimes ...) and I can imagine the spectacle that Dante must represent the fighting that sometimes occurs between 2000 and 3000 meters between a large male sperm whale 20 meters and 50 tons and a giant squid more than 20 meters in length, too, living in caves underwater ... Needless to say that the sperm is much better than me in apnea, which is not difficult: up to two hours Diving ! Then a quarter of an hour to break down the surface (their breath is easily recognizable on the waves: it is oriented 45 ° forward), a graceful movement of the tail fin and a new way to dive into the abyss, on a one hundred meters per minute extra immersion. No dive computer for the sperm whale, but a hydrostatic system exceptionally efficient, and sonar, because at such depths is of course total darkness. Fun! The identification of the squid giant sonar, and even more fun to attack the friendly creature, the front teeth in the dark abyss ...
The area around the Kaikoura Peninsula are also frequented by many dolphins, orcas, humpback whales and even blue whales, including some well-fed specimens reach the balance weight respectable ... 180 tons!
We arrive at the so British Christchurch, the largest city in South Island: broad avenues, Victorian-style buildings, pubs, parks and botanical gardens traversed by beautiful tranquil River Avon. The elegant (and very clean) Christchurch is the second city in New Zealand, behind Auckland, but before the capital Wellington. At Starbucks Coffe
on Cathedral Square, we take an Internet connection, and send a picture to children.
We live with them permanently on board for 18 months, and we did several times, with Barbara, in recent days, the same thought: since a few days that we left in the care of their grandparents parents in the North Island, we miss them. Yes, yes! I say that from this point of view, these three weeks will be difficult. Our family trip microcosm, patiently built up over time since leaving La Rochelle, and not always easy to live naturally, has tentatively exploded ...
What happiness to see them grow day by day before our eyes! What joy we find them!
Barbara strolls without excessive zeal in some shops in High Street: the world of material consumption, at least for the duration of our trip (and also normally not our cup of tea) we became really strange .
We must regain our friends Chris and France, and their children, Akaroa, in French territory (I exaggerate a bit ...) to go with them the last day of the year. What fun to find good friends, sharing, share!
Akaroa is a pleasant village situated in a deep bay, splendid and very closed, south of Banks Peninsula. The ideal dreamed, at the dawn of the 1840s, French settlers, inspired initially by the distilled information here and there by whalers and sealers ships, hunting in the region. At some distance from Akaroa Duvauchelle hamlet still exists. It bears the names of two brothers who in 1843 bought land from Maori, through the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, founded by the French Jean Langlois.
Yes, New Zealand or at least the South Island, have been seen floating on its verdant meadows ... the tricolor
But the British, again and again them, have preceded us, few indeed, which can leave even more bitter, but with Perfidious Albion trick ... ...
Residents Maori Bay (now called French Bay), where to live, were massacred in 1830 by a rival tribe nearby, and commissioned on board his ship by an English captain parole, a Stewart. In 1833, the first "British Resident" sent by the British Crown, James Busby, irritated by this initiative war and its consequences, decides to restore order in the peninsula.
John Langlois, master of Sperm Whale, which wets regularly in the Bay Akaroa, wants to found a colony. Current 1838, probably good negotiator, he negotiated the purchase of 30,000 acres (about 12,000 hectares) of Maori land for 1000 francs at the time (against 3000 francs / ha in France at the same time ...), not paying that 150 francs on deposit. He decides to return to France to seek support from the government of Louis Philippe, he gets, as well as capital and settlers .... He created the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, whose aim is clear: to colonize New Zealand!
board the ship Comte de Paris, 57 migrants attempt the journey, accompanied by Langlois. A few weeks earlier, Louis-Philippe did not sail the Dawn, a warship commanded by Charles Lavaud, official representative of France. But all this took time, at the other end of the world ... during which time the British, who got wind of information, accelerate the negotiations with Maori in the North Island. In February 1840, 6 more precisely, they obtain the signature of the Treaty of Waitangi (the place is located a few miles from our house of Opua). On 17 June 1840, the British extend British sovereignty over the South Island ...
In July, Lavaud anchored his ship in the Bay of Islands, and he learned ... that the Union Jack floats past few weeks on the New Zealand!
Malin, and very kind to Lavaud, the British Resident holds it a few days in the Bay of Islands, however, that dicrètement, the Britomart strength to ... sails Akaroa!
In August 1840, when the Count of Paris and its emigrants entering the Bay of Akaroa, the disappointment is great: the British flag flapping in the wind there for eight days!
French settlers have no choice but to stay: they settled in Akaroa. Their property titles were later validated by the British Crown, and most of them will ... naturalized in 1851. The few assets of the Company designed by John Lee in 1849 have been repurchased by the Company of New Zealand ...
New Zealand tricolor flag? The dream stops there.
This attempt failed, a small cemetery remain French, and some street names: rue Balguerie Street Benoit Street Pompallier Street Lavaud ...
Among British families emigrants settled a few years later in Akaroa, the Worsley family. One of his children, Frank Worsley, will become a great sailor: he will later appointed captain of the Endurance, the ship of Ernest Shackleton during his famous (and dramatic) Sea expedition of 1914-1916 Weddell. At the turn of a few pohutukawa blossoms (my favorite tree in New Zealand), we discover, Christopher and me, a bust of Captain F. Worsley, near the wharf of Akaroa ...
In the afternoon We stroll with our friends on a rocky promontory jutting into the bay.
the evening of December 31, it is cool in our tent, the Top Ten Holiday Park, camping in the village overlooking the French Bay. Along with Christopher and France, from Vietnam, with their children, and who complete their two week stay in a camper, we open a good bottle of wine kiwi. French grape variety ...
Raising our glasses, I also think our own, so far this evening, my son stayed at home, and all our friends. I also think Worsley, Shackleton's right arm, and another ... for the course of history!
Tomana and Mamina, joined us for two months remain in the North Island with the kids while we go to the South Island.
Marino will not be bored, the beaches of North Island are beautiful!
Adelie either, she rushes to the store Farmers try a new dress, not yet approved by his mom ...
between Picton and Havelock, it starts badly. Storm, and torrential rains ... On the hood of the Land, camping table!
Apparently, the mountain has slipped slightly on the road in front and ... behind us. You're stuck there, is not it!
As the hours of waiting, the Queen Charlotte Sound changes color from deep blue to brown thick ...
Further south, the weather returned to the mountains in the area of Hanmer Springs ...
A Kaikoura on the east coast, fur seals basking on the rocks of the Forties south ...
They have long been hunted, and this difficult time for them is included in the collective memory ...
The gull-billed and red-legged is a local variant of the case, widespread and heavy ...
The ancient monuments of Christchurch, the largest city in the South have been hit hard by the recent earthquakes ...
The capital of the Province of Canterbury has now entered the time of the next Rugby World Cup!
The Captain visits Christchurch City, on Cathedral Square ...
An old Irish bar in central Christchurch ...
At Akaroa in the Banks (the botanist J. Cook) Peninsula, it's been since a few days ...
Anglican Church of Akaroa, a town that could be French ...
... as indicated by a few street names, homegrown ...
Akaroa wharf, in a very sheltered bay which had been chosen to settle, the first French settlers in 1838 ...
Born in Akaroa, Captain Frank Worsley commanded the Endurance during Shackleton's famous expedition of 1914-1916 in Antarctica ...
Happy reunion with the lovely family and our friends in France Christophe Hirtz ...
Two girlfriends, Barbara and France, aka The Blackie, a few years after they met a student in Paris ...
On the heights of the French Bay, Akaroa, January 1, 2011 ...
