Our last full day in New Zealand began at Eucharist in Christchurch Transitional Cathedral. We left there to search out a labyrinth built out of the bricks of a nearby church destroyed in the 2011 earthquake. We walked in thanks and hope and weeded the path as a gesture of solidarity.
We say goodbye (e noho rā) to all we have met on our travels here and leave with deep gratitude for all we have received.
Our last few days in New Zealand have included a search for a labyrinth beneath the low cloud hanging in the mountains north east of Akaroa, and a second encounter with Little Blue Penguins.
We found the Southern Lights Centre labyrinth and walked as the rain grew in strength. A simple path of white pebbles with random, beautiful, inlaid coloured stones.
Today we discovered the penguins’ ‘rest home’ near Christchurch Airport. These lovely creatures are beyond rehabilitation but receive compassionate care at the International Antarctic Centre. We had encountered Little Blues at night in the wild so this chance to see them close up in daylight was a bonus and enabled us to learn more about their lives and behaviour.
New Zealand keeps giving.
The river was in full flow as we took a walk in the post rain freshness. It was lovely to encounter a red admiral butterfly, an Australasian crested grebe and a flock of local sheep.
Watching the washing go round in a tiny launderette in Akaroa. Three days of solid rain mean there is no easy drying on a line.
Not quite as conducive to stillness as the meditation group yesterday, held in a white wooden hall up the next valley, but there is something about contemplation that is possible anywhere, even a launderette.
Held safely within this tiny silo, with time and space to rest and reflect, it is no surprise that night dreams and day thoughts reveal to the conscious mind the significance and richness of hospitality – offered in sometimes the smallest and simplest of ways by this land and it’s people.
Another visit to the Cardboard Transitional Cathedral in Christchurch two days ago revealed the icon of welcome and generosity we have already met several times on this journey.
The questions this archetypal image poses for us may be something like:
We said goodbye to our friend from Australia at 3.30am this morning at Christchurch Airport and, after a little more sleep, drove to the Banks Peninsula to a place called Little River.
We are staying in a converted Silo for the next few days. A curious, wonderous space from which to explore the local bays, walking tracks and bike trails.
Already we have heard new song from the feathered inhabitants of the bush in which the silo graciously sits. Just lovely.
For our family, friends and followers…
Kia hora te marino
Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana
Kia tere te karohirohi i mua i tu huarahi
May the calm be widespread
May the ocean glisten as greenstone
May the shimmer of light ever dance across your pathway
We left Abel Tasman two days ago and drove south west around several mountain ranges and over the Lewis Pass until we reached the alpine village of Hanmer Springs.
After a comfortable night in a B&B where we cried our way through the film ‘Billy Elliot’, we continued south east towards the Pacific Coast and our destination of Akaroa on Banks Peninsula.
It is good to have landed for a couple of days in this lovely place with its subtle French influence.
Abel Tasman has been generous to us these last two days.
We have tramped the coastal path, rested on golden beaches listening to the sound of the waves, kayaked along the north coast of the National Park getting up close to fur seals, black oyster catchers and shags, and read in a hammock listening to the bird song of the many birds of the bush where we are staying.
These have been days of contemplation and activity. We have witnessed much of the beauty of this special place and feel the better for it.
We sailed from North Island to South Island for the last time two days ago. We left Wellington in sunshine and somewhere along the Cook Strait the cloud rolled in and South Island appeared gently through the grey drizzle.
We are revisiting the Abel Tasman National Park. I wonder if the fur seals we encounter will be the inquisitive pups we swam with four years ago?
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