Leaving Okains Bay involved climbing out of the morning ocean fog bank. We then drove all the way around the summit road that follows the ridge of the main caldera away from the Banks peninsula - great views, but extremely twisty.
We wanted to see Lyttelton before returning Hal - one of the hardest hit Christchurch communities in the earthquakes. Lyttelton is a small community perched on a hillside overlooking a harbour just over a hill (or through a tunnel) from Christchurch proper. It was the former home of Jen, Tony, Pico and Zinnia, who hosted us in Motueka.
It's certainly a cute and cozy community, even post-earthquake, and seems like it would be a great place to live. Almost entirely built on steep slopes, which didn't help the earthquake situation.
Harbour at the foot of the hill.
Lots of earthquake damage and shoring-up was visible.
Like Christchurch, some lots formerly sporting buildings are now community spaces.
It's hard to tell where the "red zones" are (i.e. areas that are unstable and dangerous, where no one is allowed to go), but I'd be willing to bet this might be one. The local newspaper said that one particular red zone house just had a huge boulder fall into it - the third time since the big quake that such a big rock has tumbled onto that property. Yikes.
This cool shipping container-based cafe and pub called The Porthole sits upon the site of other popular cafes that were destroyed in the quakes.
What used to be at the Porthole site.
Porthole interior - pretty cool. Bright and airy.
All too quickly it was time to go back to Christchurch, give Hal a bath and return him to his home. At least he looked happy to be back among his brothers.
We then met up with Matt and his wife Kate again, who had graciously given us a place to stay for the night. And had picked us up from Hal's drop-off point. And then took us to buy beer! What wonderful people. We stopped by the Twisted Hop first and had a happy hour beer - great IPA there, among other beers.
Then we stopped by Harringtons for "flagon" fills. NZ doesn't do glass growler fills, instead they fill plastic PET (pop) bottles in the 1L-2L size range. Lots of selection at Harringtons!
Then it was off to Matt and Kate's place - they are temporarily staying with their parents while transitioning to new digs. So many thanks to their parents as well. And what did I see when I walked into their house?
Oh of course - a classic poster from Silver Star in the BC interior, the ski hill where I learned to ski and did all of my childhood skiing. Matt's parents go skiing at Silver Star quite often, as it turns out. Small world.
Some Kiwi beers in the late-afternoon Kiwi sun, with Kiwis, followed.
To accompany the beer, we got classic NZ fish and chips in newsprint. Fantastic stuff.
This was followed by a lot of beer sampling throughout the evening, which I hope to write more about over on the @hoplog beer blog if I ever get a chance to update it. I need to give an extra shout out to Matt for his generosity, which involved dipping into his cellar to share some special NZ beers with me.
The possibly most interesting beer was also the last - a really wonderful barleywine intimately connected with the Christchurch quakes. The Twisted Hop (where we had beer earlier that day) had a brewery in Christchurch's Central Business District. They did some seismic upgrades, so their brewery was well-equipped to survive an earthquake. When the second (big) earthquake hit, they had a barleywine in the fermenter, bubbling away. Their brewery survived the quake, but the brewery itself was in a region so ravaged that it was designated a "red zone" that no one was allowed to enter (since a building might fall on you at any moment). So Twisted Hop had stand by while their brewery stood idle for 6 months - with a barleywine sitting untouched in a fermenter. This isn't a bad thing for a barley wine, which is very alcoholic, takes a long time to ferment, and benefits from extended conditioning and aging. Once they were allowed back to the brewery, Twisted Hop bottled the barley wine and sold it under the name "Red Zone," for obvious reasons.
And Matt shared one of these rare bottles with me. I really can't thank him enough. An amazing story, and an amazing beer.
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| Note the "6.3 MAG" strength - the magnitude of the second and most devastating earthquake |
The next morning, after a somewhat groggy post-barleywine breakfast, Matt's parents kindly gave us a ride to the airport, as they were on the same flight to Auckland as we were. This included frequent-flyer valet parking and access to the New Zealand Air club lounge, so many thanks to them for such luxurious treatment!
We can certainly recommend cruising the South Island in a campervan if you're at all into nature, camping, mountains, ocean, or just general relaxation away from overpopulated urban areas. It was a fantastic time, and was over in an eyeblink.
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