Three Years Later...

Carol and Roger were in Christchurch three years to the day after their most devastating earthquakes…yes, quakes plural.

The poster child of the earthquake is the Christchurch cathedral.  It was largely destroyed by the first quake…which hit at about 4:30 in the morning, when almost everybody was home in bed.

The second quake hit three months later in the middle of the day, when parents were at work and children at school.  Because families were separated; it caused more panic than the first and left much of the central business district in shambles…including both Starbucks in town.

Although there was some loss of lives in the second quake, the Kiwis of Christchurch found innovative ways to bounce back.

Carol performing at Pallet Pavilion

As soon as they could clear the rubble away, they started building temporary structures to make the CBD viable again.  Where a large luxury hotel once stood, they built what they call Pallet Pavilion, a concert/meeting venue make entirely out of used wooden pallets and plastic milk cartons and painted bright blue.  The space also hosts food trucks, tables, and chairs, so folks go there at lunch time and for family outings and picnics

What was once the main shopping district has been turned into a pedestrian mall with dozens of shops…all refurbished shipping containers.  Cool!  

These containers housed more than just small shops.  Even the biggest banks in the country found ways to squeeze full service branches into a container or two.

There is even an incubator for engineering and fashion design that is a multi floor “building” made entirely of containers, and located in the heart of the CBD.

They have even built a temporary cathedral to stand in for the one being repaired…made largely out of cardboard. We couldn’t get inside to photograph it, but the inside is definitely cardboard tubes, thousands of them, creating a peaked ceiling.  It is actually nicknamed “The Cardboard Cathedral.”

The politics of what should be restored and rebuilt versus what should be razed and replaced has been fierce.  So far 365 historic sites in and near Christchurch are gone, demolished, some that critics say could have been repaired.  There has been a nasty battle between citizens one one side and the government and church officials on the other, regarding the Christchurch Cathedral.  Engineering firms are firmly on the side of repairing the structure. 

We were let in on some of the politics behind this issue by Ron Meltzer’s cousin, Helene Moutner.  She is involved in local politics, as an elected official.  She is also a conservationist.  As a member of the Labor Party, she believes in public input and listening to what the people have to say.  She is also a delightful hostess and really nice person.  If you know Ron, you know her.  If you know Ron’s sister Lois, you also know Helene.  All three have a similar sense of humor and look like siblings.  It was very comfortable sharing her home and city with her for several days.    

Reconstruction is proceeding at a frantic pace.  There are dozens of construction cranes on the skyline.  Ten thousand people left the city after the second earthquake…either because they lost homes and businesses or were  freaked out by the constant rumbling of the earth (there were thousands of aftershocks).  

However, the flood of construction workers into town has grown the population to more than what it was before disaster struck.

Captain Cook…the first European to set eyes on New Zealand…would be proud of the spirit of those who followed him.

Fur Seals…Downtown

For our last seal experience, Carol and Roger headed to  Needles Point, a six kilometer walk up a rocky beach, where our feet sank into gravel up to our ankles with each step.  We had read there is a large seal colony at our destination “in season,” but nobody ever explained when that season is.

After what seems an endless walk, we finally reached our destination.  Roger scrambled over the rocks to get the picture at the right.  Still no sign of seals.  Just as he finished snapping this photo, he heard a bark and turned to his left.

Not 10 feet from him a female seal 
raised her head from the brush where she’d been resting and stared.  She never ran; she just stood there and stared.

It turns out we were at the Needles “in season.”  A few more steps revealed this scene.  If this were a children’s book, it would ask the question, how many seals can you find in this picture?

The answer is 37.  

For the seals, it was the central business district...downtown sealdom.

The rocks were packed with seals, perhaps 150 to 200 of them…some in tight little groups like this, others spread over the rocks.  About 75 were pups, sprawled out and taking their morning naps.  Roger was very busy taking lots of photos of the cuties.  Carol observed the social situation…

As we approached, the Sergeant barked and all the adults looked up.  She barked again and some of them went into action.  They secured the perimeter, some going out to sea to patrol the shoreline while others spread out around the pups, enclosing them in a protective ring.  They remained sitting at attention until The Sergeant barked “at ease.”  As we both climbed around the rocky point, The Sergeant would bark to remind the caretakers to maintain their guard.

So long as we didn’t “threaten” the pups, the seals seemed to care less that we were there.  They let us get very close…which is how Roger got this portrait.  Since we see this close up, we can explain a few things about New Zealand seals.  Unlike other seals, their ears protrude outside their skulls.  

They have two layers of fur…which is what made them so attractive to hunters in the 1800’s.  Females can weigh up to 100 pounds.  Males, who have much larger shoulders and chests, can weigh three times that much.  

They are great swimmers who can stay underwater 15 minutes a dive and who can dive to depths of 1,000 feet without getting the bends.

Like salmon, no matter how far from their birthplace they range…and tagged bull males are often found 600 miles from home…they always return to the very same spot each breeding season (December-January).

For Roger especially, the opportunity to see the seals in their native habitat was the highlight of our time on the South Island.  For the seals, apparently, it was nothing special.

Fur Seals...Daycare

New Zealand fur seals are very social animals.  They live in colonies comprised of either thousands of bull males or...as in this case...dozens of mothers and their pups.  The pups, fifteen of them in the picture above watched by three adult females, gather at tide polls during low tide to play in the water and learn social skills necessary for survival in the colony.

Since the baby seals stay with their mothers into their second year, some of the seals in these photos will be newborns and some will be yearlings.  Carol and Roger disagree about which pups are which, but then neither of us is an expert.

Most of the photos in this post were taken at Whariki Beach, very near the northern tip of the South Island.

When the tide recedes enough for the pups to come out, they clamber down the rocks and jump into the tide pools to swim.

There is always an adult female on hand to keep an eye on the pups.  Remember, female seals give birth to one pup at a time, so this mom is watching more than just her own pup.

We were able to wade out to the pool where the pups were playing.  They initially scurried away.  But we were patient, and the pups eventually came back to the pool.  The pup at the right swam right up to Roger, jumped up onto the rocks at his feet, and sat there completely unafraid for a few seconds before diving back into the tide pool.  Because they seemed so comfortable with us, we assume we were not the first humans they have come in contact with.

Learning social skills at the tide pool.

At home, Roger took his dog Hershey to a nearby school yard for "puppy play group" each morning.  Watching the seal pups wrestle with each other and play tag looked just like Hershey at puppy play group.

Playing the seals' version of tag.

This play is important for learning social skills.  In the photo at the right, the pups are posturing and wrestling...honing the moves they will need when they become adults to win and hold prime breeding territory in the colony.

The males in the colony have a social hierarchy much like wild dogs in their pack.  The alpha males get their choice of breeding females.

These seals are polygamous, and the males have to win the affections of their mates anew each breeding season.  Each year, the alpha males are challenged anew for their positions.

The male seals are mature by age six but don't have enough social status to win a female's affections until they are eight or nine.

Like all toddlers, these seals get tuckered out after an hour or two of play.  This one napped without even crawling out of the tide pool.

The pup in the photo at the left was a special case.  He didn't slide drown the hill into the water with the others.  Instead, he perched on a rock and watched his mates play.  Others eventually came over to his perch and coaxed him down into the water.  He had a right flipper that didn't work, and while he could swim he couldn't keep up with the others.

Both of us hope this was an injury that would eventually heal, but that might not be the case.

Blow Holes

As Carol and Roger worked their way up the west coast of the South Island, they got ever deeper into rain forest.  From a distance, the scene looked much like the beaches on the Olympic Peninsula.

Our destination was Punakaiki National Park…known for its pancake rocks and  blow holes.

OK, these rocks do look a bit like a stack of pancakes, but does that make it worthy of a national park?  

The answer dates back 35 million years, when successive layers of shell sediment fossilized forming these layers of rock.  Some of the layers were softer than others…

…which meant that after 35 million years of waves crashing into them,

…you got some pretty interesting rock formations.

 …which is where the blow holes come from.  

Where there are holes like this in the rock, and the tide surges in,

It creates a geyser, 50 feet high….with a booming force which is heard (and felt during the winter)…

…only to settle down then seconds-later repeat the process.

This happened not just in one place…

…but everywhere the sea had cut a hole in the rock.

Promotional Photo

On days when the sea is running strong, the geysers can double in height, and (when the sun is out) be quite spectacular.

And, as we did nearly every day, we discovered a new kind of flora or fauna…this one a fern called Spleenwort (which certainly looks prettier than you would guess from its name)…growing out of the bark of several trees in the misty air of Punakaiki.