Darkened Night Skies

Sunday, May 20th:

Chris had texted our favorite surrogate Aunti Sue and she insisted they we come to their house on the Marlborough Sounds. The Marlborough sounds sweep across the northeast corner of the South Island and offer spectacular views for tourists and locals as well as home to seals and even whales. They are a popular destination for sea kayakers and hikers.

We feasted once more, this time on eggs, kumara potatoes, ham, mushrooms, onions, capsicum, Swedish pancakes and apple juice. We were so excited to have a full, nice kitchen to use that we couldn’t help ourselves. After our last smorgasbord at the house in Nelson we cleaned up after ourselves as best we could, loaded all of our bags in the nearly bottomed-out Vista and headed northeast for Havelock.

We arrived at their house after only a little more than an hour. We didn’t know what to expect, but we certainly could not have expected what we got. Their house was a mere toss of a rock from the sounds. From their driveway you could see layers upon layers of mountains and hills coming up out of the ocean water. They had a goat and chickens. When we arrived Sue was chatting with one of her friends whose kids were running around with Sue’s while Kip was out back working to erect their new shed. It was a very typical, and somehow therefore pleasant, farm scene.

We immediately noticed strong and sweet smells perfuming the house and Sue informed us that she had been baking—muffins for this afternoon, an apple pie for desert tonight and a couple of chocolate cakes for us to take on our trip back. We were being spoiled and enjoying it to the fullest.

That afternoon we had a friendly in the backyard with little Kip (their son) and Kendall (their daughter) who were quite good soccer players. It was raining and we were having a ball sliding and diving and getting all wet on an incredible Sunday afternoon. At one point the clouds cleared and a ray of sunlight penetrated right down to the sounds. It was like a hole had been punched in the clouds and the brilliance of the heavens was shining through to the water below. We all stopped, well all of us who didn’t live there, and wondered how incredible it must be to live there.

That night, after dinner and after we had a soak in their hot tub, we played our third and final game of spades. The series had been tied up, 1-1, and this game was for all the glory. Somehow, through some sort of miracle or gap in the space-time continuum, Chris and I managed to lay a sound beating on Brianne and Annika. I won’t go as far as mentioning the actual score because most of you reading this probably wouldn’t know what it meant anyways, but lets just say it was a fairly good trouncing.

Monday, May 21st:

We took our sweet time getting out of bed that morning and even managed to cook another fairly good breakfast before we had to say goodbye to all the amazing friends we had made and to the luxurious weekend we had just had because of their hospitality. Kip was the only one left in the morning—the others had gone back to their house in Nelson—and we did our best to show our appreciation and exchanged phone numbers and emails.

A few short hours later we arrived in Kaikora. Kaikora is only a couple of hours, at the most, from Christchurch but Chris and I had still never been. We had heard of peoples grand adventures their and the beautiful coastline scenery cut by massive peaks that we would find.

After we had had a quick lunch we decided to go for a walk on the Kaikora Peninsula. It was already 4 pm so we hurried to the trail head and started walking along the rocky shore. On the peninsula we saw tidal pools, teeming with life that seemed to flow back and forth even without the steady current of the ocean, seal colonies and rock formations which seemed out of place for a beach, or anywhere for that matter. We stopped to devour the cake Sue had so graciously baked for us near the water where we could watch the waves come crashing in over the rocks to the sound of seal colonies barking.

We walked back along the ridge above the immediate shoreline to get some better views of the peninsula. At the end of the track there was an observation station where we decided to stop and watch the sunset at. It started off averagely, the sky gently going from blue to a faint orange. Then, all of the sudden, like God had decided to pay attention to this sunset, it exploded into vibrant, brilliant color. To the west was dark orange and red cut by the mountains and to the east hues of purple which transformed the ocean into swirling color. It was one of the more magnificent sunsets that I had ever seen.

The rest of our night consisted of Brianne driving back to Christchurch, Sushi and another game of Spades. Brianne and I managed to rally late, very late, and squeak out a come from behind victory much to the disgust of Annika and Chris. It was a good day.