Rona; Punakaki; Jack's "Bull's Balls"

Rona has a house in the hills that has a small view of the ocean. It overlooks a pond & low-lying brush. It's a newly built house with a compost toilet & rainwater for her water supply. Her electric is solar. The windows of her house, especially the bedroom I stayed in, had big picture windows framing beautiful scenes.

Rona is very "green partyish". We had a discussion about something & I remember her saying that she disagreed. I got the impression that she didn't like me. She seemed like a quiet, deep thinker. Alison & her got on real well.

We walked down to the pond to look at a tiny orchid. Rona gave me a white rock that I was admiring. It looked like an egg & had a nice feel to it.

After touring her art studio, we left & drove just down the road to Christine's, another friend of Alison's. She wasn't home but Rona had told us about how she's trying to make a living by selling organic, granola & muesli, so we went inside, found the granola bags & bought two. I liked Christine's friendly, yellow, striped cat & she had a great house.

We stopped in Westport to pick up some Miner's Organic Brew (beer). Went to a cafe' for a banana smoothie & to plan our trip. Also had my first meat pie with a mashed potato topper.

Went to a gallery, bank, & supermarket. Checked out a cafe' at Cape Foulwind. And took a 10 minute ocean view walk at Truman's. Lots of tree ferns & such. Stopped at another place & walked to a seal colony. It was fun watching the seals on the rocks. Saw a baby seal being threatened by a bull seal. Mamma came by & yelled at him. She maneuvered the baby out of its situation. Bulls will kill babies.

Stopped at Punakaki. It has the Pancake Rocks & blowholes. It was the most interesting part of today's events. The rocks look like flat pancakes stacked. It must be limestone. It was so carved out that the ocean waves splashed through canyons of these pancake rocks & would shoot up in the air when it hit the end.

Got gas in Greymouth & realized that I had no sleeping bag for a night of camping. I had left it with Frank & Nina. I called Jack on the cell phone. I said, "Hi, this is Tami". There was a little bit of a pause & then he said, "Oh, my long lost cousin". I explained our situation & that we'd be driving straight through to his place. Then I talked to Tansy. She said she left a few things at Alison's & asked if we had brought them. We had found her ankle bracelet & Frank's shaving cream & had brought them along. Then Tansy & I got cut off.

Drove over Arthur's Pass of glacial mountains. I saw alluvial fans of rock material left by the glaciers. We drove up past the tree line. Saw Buller River & some of it's tributaries. Crossed the plains of flat land. The Buller River started meandering. It looked like glacier water, a milky, icy, blue.

Got to Christchurch & found Jack's house. He was at the movies with his girlfriend, Manja (Manya). Frank & Nina had gone to bed. Tansy was up talking to Jack's roommates, Ian & Andy. Andy is a surveyor & Ian is getting his doctorate in electronic engineering & is doing his thesis on a vertebrae prosthetic.

I slept on an air mattress on the floor in the living room with Alison.

Jack’s “Bull’s Balls” that Nina brought over in her suitcase.