The Christchurch Chronicles

After lunch, and the packaging of the morning's catch into 1lb bags for the freezer, we headed off to see some sights of Westport. I wanted to go to the river mouth - apparently it's called "the tip head". Each side of the mouth of the Buller River (the entrance to Westport Harbour) is protected by a breakwater of granite, quarried from nearby Cape Foulwind. A road extends along the top of each breakwater, and you can drive right to the tip on either side of the river. We went to the west side (the harbour entrance faces north), along Tiphead Road which is accessed from Cape Foulwind Road (and no points for guessing where that road goes!).

Photos

Westport reputedly has plenty of surfing action. The breakwater at the mouth of the Buller offers a good beach break, and Shingles is a unique freshwater beach break 1 km inside the river mouth, but requires a real north-west storm surge to make it perform well. We saw surfers both at the Buller, and in Tauranga Bay, but neither group seemed to be having much success catching a wave.

To be continued . . .

Chris had long-ago invited me to the West Coast during whitebaiting season - he travels down from Levin every year and stays at his great-aunt's house in Westport for as much of the season as he can. I didn't make it to "The Coast" last year - weather and circumstances getting in the way. This year I was going, no matter what.

Sat 31 Oct - I left Christchurch at 8:15am, and travelled via the Lewis Pass. I hadn't been on this road since 1971 when our 7th-form trip met its demise in the form of a rolled mini-bus (Ford Transit) near Maruia Springs. Thenceforth we had to rely on public transport . . . but that's another story, as they say. On our honeymoon in 1982, Ian and I had gone via Picton, Nelson and Murchison to Westport and so didn't take the Lewis Pass.

The Lewis Pass road has its highest point (907m) just beyond the Canterbury/Westland boundary then drops into the Maruia valley and heads for Reefton. Then there's more northerly travel towards a left/westerly turn into the lower Buller gorge, and more mountainous surroundings and beautiful scenery.

Hawk's Crag:

The freaky thing here is that I know I'm getting near the coast, but there still appears before me row upon row of ranges - I can't imagine when they will end! Suddenly I'm out the other side - and it was just about then that I saw the first two of several weka that I would spot over the weekend, and a small black goat that leapt deftly up from the roadside berm into the ferns and bush overhanging the bank.

As directed by Chris, I pulled into the paddock just before the bridge that crosses the Buller into Westport, and walked down to his 'possie', at 12:45 - a 4.5hr trip. We went back to the house (tides and fishing were over for the day - and it turns out that was the worst day's fishing of his whole stay), had lunch then went tiki-touring around Westport.

More pics here

Shan's stitches came out today, and everything has healed nicely.

Since 'The Incident' I've kept the dogs separated in my absence - i.e. if I'm not home, or if I'm in bed. When I go out, to work, etc, Lainey gets shut in their normal room on her own (baby gate), and Shan has the lounge/dining/kitchen area. At night, they tend to swap over - Lainey chooses on the bed in the living area and Shan uses their bedroom - so that's how I leave them for the night. They've also become more guarded over their food too, so they now get fed separately - one in the kitchen, one in the dog room.

More trouble than a bunch of kids!

Christchurch City Corps band went to Ashburton today to lead the morning meeting (service), have lunch provided by the Ashburton Corps, then do a 45-minute concert at a local rest home. It's about an hour's drive from Chch.

The day was as glorious as they get in the Canterbury Spring, and made up for the rubbish we had had the week before. Of course, there's nothing to impede the view from the (boringly straight) State Highway 1 to the Southern Alps, and they looked stunning, covered with snow to VERY low levels.

Photo taken on my cellphone from the rear passenger seat of a moving car on the homeward journey - probably not worth even showing you!! Actually, I've noticed the different effect the light has, being on the east side of the mountains, compared with being on the west side "up home". On the way down in the morning, in particular, the alps almost looked fake.

It was a good day. The afternoon was so warm that uniform jackets were discarded during the outdoor concert.

Oh yeah, and I was asked (pre-warned) to share my testimony at the morning meeting.

I went to "An Evening with Il Divo" at the Westpac Arena (next to Addington raceway - only 3km away - quite handy by city standards!).

 

If you've been living in a cave for the last few years and don't know who they are: 4 obligatorily nice-looking young men, opera's answer to the boy band, put together by American Idol's Simon Cowell after a world-wide search for the right talent. Two operatic tenors (American and Swiss), an operatic baritone from Spain, and a French pop singer.

The concert was due to start at 8pm, and I was seated by 7:30 - and only 6 rows from the front. The concert was late getting underway, though, at 8:15, so marks off for that.

With a 5-piece rock band and 20-piece orchestra, the opening bars surprised me with their volume - I hadn't expected the orch. to be mic'd (I don't know why!!) But it was awesomely loud, and I was unexpectedly deeply moved.

OK, to some extent I have to agree with one US critic I have read, referring to a 2006 concert, who pointed out the repetitive nature of the musical arrangements - "Song after song gets cranked up in the same numbingly repetitive way. The voices don't so much build on one another as coagulate in dense, assaultive chords and melodies that go marching up to their obligatory climaxes" - and the contrived lack of spontaneity - "The choreography, if you could call it that, has a somber, solitary cast. The singers slowly migrate away from one another, reassemble and process up and down a set of risers...." Except that in one song, one of them forgot to move, and got a good ribbing from the others at the end of the song. They are not robots after all! Also, the sound in the arena became distorted at the higher volumes, losing clarity, and the one non-classically trained singer amongst them sounded quite nasal at higher volumes.

On the other hand, one could say that the presentation was very polished, "the boys" appeared relaxed and at ease, and looked as if they were enjoying the music and each others' company. If the smiles they exchanged with each other during the songs were merely acted, then credit to them for making it all look like such fun. (And I was glad that they didn't play too much on their perceived "appeal with the ladies" as they had done during one concert I have seen on DVD.) And of course, there was the singing. For all the criticism put forward by the purists, it was powerful stuff.

They were on stage for just shy of two hours in total. I had a blast - it was a fabulous night.

And now here's a touch of the extremes that make life interesting - this same night, Scott was in Auckland at a concert featuring Megadeth and Slayer.  (Thrash/metal.)

Hmmm. (And I simply HAD to make their pic smaller than Il Divo's!)

The stupid dogs had a 3 a.m. argument over sleeping space, and Lainey bit Shan. It would have been a single chomp, resulting in a single puncture wound on the top of her nose, and a tear under the throat. Initially it didn't look too bad, but on closer inspection I decided a visit to the vet was called for. Seeing that her dental check and clean is due in December, I asked the vet to do that while she was under anaesthetic. I went back in the afternoon to pick up the patient - wound all stitched up, teeth cleaned, and 6 loose incisors extracted. ("The back teeth are actually quite good.") Discharged with 6 days' worth of antibiotics, and instructions to go back in 5 days for wound and gum check, and stitches to come out a week after that. $586 thank you very much.

Details to come.

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Second Anniversary of Lainey's arrival.

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