italy

http://frogsinroma.blogspot.com/

Back in France

Hei konei mai
see you

yvan

My New Zealand

February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, 8 months, 8 places, 8 words...
They are perhaps not the most beautiful place (perhaps, perhaps) but they are the ones I will remember...
The white beach - Kaikoura : 42.432533, 173.694458
Lookout on Billy Goat - Mount Bruce : 40.7396, 175.64642
The meadow in the middle of the Ark in the Park - Waitekere Ranges : 36.882490, 174.515362
The valley below Mount Cook - North Otago : 43.813767, 170.132045
The island where we have had a lunch - Abel Tasman : 40.979443, 173.056298
The shore of Waikatipu Lake - Queenstown : 45.059741, 168.590024
The terrace of the library - Lincoln University : 43.643806, 172.468057
The creek of the second evening - Steewart Island : 46.890339, 168.020357
Mountains, conservation, friendship, humanism, wilderness, future, muffins, rain

see you

yvan

PS : Te Anau Lake under the stars : between 45.404441, 167.718218 and 45.033268, 167.858486

Sight of the Huia, or Last days in Mount Bruce

No, I haven't been lucky enough to catch sight of the dark feathers of the Huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) : I've to say that this bird have been seen for the last time in 1907. Despite that I stay convinced that, even if the bird is classified in extinct species, some of them must still live in the bushy new-zealander bush. Next expedition : rediscovery of the Huia in New-Zealand. Last days in Mount Bruce, so... I'll miss this bush and its inquisitive birds, its giant and tiny ferns... I will especially deplore to miss spring, which is arriving for a week, and trees in bloom.
Anyway, I'll be back there...

Cold days in Mount Bruce

After a ( 'scuse my French) crappy week-end (sorry for my guests), this week hasn't been so bad. Actually, except the temperature, it's even a good one.
Every morning is a repetition of frosts, sometimes snow.
But the sun usually arrives quite quickly and the rat monitoring allows to enjoy it...
From the farmland where I enjoyed my peanut butter and jelly sandwich (thanks Liz for the recipie)

see you

yvan

PS: Have a look were I should be next summer, in the links on the right, section other parts of the world

PS2: I'm trying to find out the mistery of the glowing earthworms. Currently, I've picked up 9 or 10 worms from the site. Yersteday evening, going to steal a kiwi egg (to protect it against predators, and incubate it - we should have a brand new kiwi in the next seven days), I've remaked that not so many worms were glowing. I'll try to rain on mine to check if this activate them...More on the next post...

Five weeks in a bush

Today, how to hunt North Island Brown kiwis(Apteryx australis mantelii ).
First, the place: Pukaha Mount Bruce, a protected hill which aim is to allow everyone to hear again the concerto of birds which had marked the first european settlers... For this more than 100km of tracks which cross 1000ha of bush,

rainforest, alpine meadows red-pine forestsand beech-forest... To find the animal, be prepared for a weather...New-Zealander : nice day one day, snow the day after, and rain between, fog, because it's funny to changeBut whatever the time of the day, a raimbow covers the forest, which should be full of treasures...Its treasures are the animals which give to this mainland's island a look of ornithologic Noe ark : Tomtit (Petroica macrocephala) kereru (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) fat wood pigeon, sometines to heavy for the small branches of the canopy kaka (Nestor meridionalis) parrot cousin of the moutain dweller kea tuis (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) and bellbirds (Anthornis melanura) which songs are so identical that it's sometimes impossible to distinguish one from the other : tui's fault who imitates it's colleague's chimes.

Other treasures, more hidden : mosses, funghiwhich colors are sometimes quite "human"...and, to wrap the all, as a bouquet going out from the florist, ferns, hectares of ferns' leaves : tree-ferns (as kakote -Cyathea smithii- second picture), normal ferns browning in autumn, silver ferns, epiphyte ferns climbing on top of trunks,as these cicadas which moults stay caught to the tree which protected them So, to find the bird, you need either a very good sense of smell or good radiotracking tools
Nevertheless, you won't have to climb in the trees, I'm sorry, but kiwi are flightless birds, as takahe, kakapo or Campbel Island tealIn this case, be prepared to crawl into burrows dug under logs, roots or ferns, catch the feet of the bird, weigh it, touch it, take a nice picture and bring it back to its room.And that's all folks

see you

yvan

Satellite 2nd

North Island Tour : Following and end...

comments, so...
Back in June, 21st, I think...
A preview of the Pacific Ocean from the old volcano of Tauranga. From the summit the beaches of the Bay of Plenty were extending to the East and the mountains of Coromandel to the West. Something like the French West coast when you are looking to Spain, mixed with English cliffs.

We are driving to Coromandel Peninsula. Stopped on Whitianga's beach for noon and the afternoon, just enough time to contemplate the sand, pinked by remains of shells.

Sunset above Hot water beach. Unfortunaitely, we arrived too late for the low tide and didn't enjoyed the hot water springs running into the ocean. Another day, maybe...?

The following day, June 22nd, we leave to the tip of the peninsula, where we walk during a while, observing the Kauri trees, big and moving, last remainders of the primary forests which covered the North Island, before logging became the hobby of european settlers...We arrived at dusk in Auckland's suburbs' traffic jam, our spirits still fogged by the silence of the forests and the beat of the waves. Fortunaitely, Lizzie was going to spent three weeks in the Waitakere Ranges and allowed us to spent our last night in the camper-van at her boss' place, on top of one of the hills surrounding Auckland. John, the young English hitch-hiker we picked up at Thames, gave us some mussel's sausages and porridge of his own preparation. So British...

The following day, we let the camper-van leaving to the airport. Last blow of horn for what has been a funny week, at six (and then seven) in 12m² encumbered by the table, the benches, the back-packs, the suitcases, the laptops and the travellers...

Fast visit of Auckland, economic capital of NZ and asiatic metropolis. Queen Street, one of the main streets is full of restaurants and take-aways chineese, thailandese, corean, japanese, malaysian, viet-namian,indonesian...even kebabs' cookers are asiatic...We celebrated my birthday at the top floor of a tapas' bar while the waiter, little bit tipsy, offered us drinks...Nice guy

Back at our backpacker. First and last view of Auckland by nightJune, 24th, we went with the French girls to the airport. Jens, Lizzie and I, last survivors of this short trip, went back to the quiet gardens of the Auckland's museum, on the top of an extinct volcano (there are many volcanos in the whole metropolis ; this gives to the city a look of Lisboa, without the Tage).

We came back at dusk to our new back-packer, ate something and moved to the movie theatre. Back at the hostel, I cooked the crepes Lizzie was waiting for for five months and blew my "21" candle on the roof of the building... One is not 21 everyday...

Now, when I think about it, these 20years went fast, eventually...I'm not sure to have any memories of my three first years : maybe my baptism, but I think is because of this picture on which I try to inflate a balloon of goldbeater's skin (is that English?) Three years of early school at Ance, where we looked at the tiny naked swallow's chicks falling from their nest. I remenber the kiss of Coline. I remember the medical examination, euh, only the sight test where we looked at a montgolfier crossing the screen : my life was it going to be dedicated to images, or hot-air ballons ?

In Féas, I remember the old playground, at the center of the village, and the wall on the top of which we could observe the garden. The walks to Chez Lacrouts, the restaurant where the 20 children we were ate, and the gymnastic class in the council hall. I remind the smelling of the council hall and the music : Sting singing Roxane (but having understood the lyrics since, I'm not really sure it was this song) and another one, the hat's song. One year when I coupled two : the jump which made me the youngest of my class during years. Then three years with Monsieur (that's how we call our school teacher). Other memories, but too much to write now. I remember Julie's birthday, our walks with Mathieu and our exchange of fossils...

Then 4 years at Junior school while I saw leaving friends of mine, learnt the electronic resistance code and how to play guitar, and read all the books of Pennac, and La Vénus d'Ille and Le Horla. Have I too much imagination or it is normal to have cold sweats during 2 or 3 three years afetr reading this two novels?

I left the small world of Arette and its sport's classes on the hills, playing with puffballs, to Supervielle Highschool and the view on the Pyrénées from the Physics' rooms. Three years while I changed a little bit. The French classes of Mademoiselle Peyre-Lavigne and her remedial courses where I didn't have to go but where we ate good chocolate, History classes of Madame Etchart with David, and Mme Roulet's French classes with David, Biology classes with Cousti and David and sometimes Gisou, biology's assistant. Then Philosophy classes with Lisa and Mme Lachia-Boutet's Maths classes with David and our two neighbours who gave us paper folding classes. Maybe that's why I've never understood anything to probabilities...rather, I've never wanted to understand (no, it's false, I understand, I don't like, that's all). And all the books my dear French teachers and my dear guitar's teacher (God blesses you, Noel) : Italo Calvino, Erri de Luca, Maxence Fermine, Alessandro Barico, Andrei Makine and the other which I remember the stories but not the authors...

Then Pesoa and Jancar in prépa. And the fellows z'and friends : Christophe, Mitch, Orianne, Fernand et Aloys, Fabien, Dédé and Mailis, Bilou et Paps, Pap, Arthur. 3 lines for 2 years.

Toulouse, Arbus and NZ.

and during all this time papa and maman, Pierre and Benjamin, papé and mamé, papi, mamy, Simon and Baptiste, Loré, and Anais, Eric and Florent, Francoise, Béatrice, Annie and Roger, Pierrot and Andrée, Michou, Valérie, Claire, Manon and Lucile, Catherine, Alexandre, papy Fernand, Gaston and Colette, Danny, Philipe, Pitou and Tex Avery and the families formed, from Larrau to Aramits, from Authese to the Oural Mountains, in the Pyrénées or in Provence ...

And also the Arlas peak, the hutt, the Soum de Leche, the Vert, Mea Culpa, Hegoa, the Adour, the canal du Midi and the Island of Sainte Lucie, Wapiti, Ixtil and Oluia our horses, Poly, the Pyrénées with dad and mum and benjamin and pierre, the gold in the streams of Artouste, the fisch in a bottle at the Ayous lakes, the Pic du Midi, the adders, Petit, the sounds of Cassis, Sete and Georges Brassens, Fernande and Margot, Queen, Lit-et-Mixe and the 14th of July toffee in shells, the shacks under the pines, the chapped guitar, the Laguiole and the Opinel knives lost looking for mushrooms, the Ricard on top of the Vignemale, the Balaitous, the Néouvielle, the Pic Long, the Pyrénées, fishing and the first trout I poached, the cock grouse, Quino, Mordillo, Cabu, the silhouettes in paper made during the winter afternoon, dad's workshop, the French "tea-time" with dad, mum, pierre and benjamin...

All of you who made me as I am, wherever you are, on earth, on the sea, in the sky or among the stars, I kiss you .

25 juin. 21 years.

Lizzie and I are going to the Waitakeres. I stayed there one week, in this calm forest, walking North-South/South-North and East-West with my friend and inquisitive Robin(Petroica australis longipes). A very good week, unfortunaitely too fast, between the bush and the warm Aio Wira Centre, we finished on Tiritiri Matangi Island. Heaven of threatened species.

Going back by the Desert Road, I passed near the Tongariro, before arriving at Mount Bruce, North of Wellington. More precisions next time...

See you

yvan

North Island Tour, finally

After 3 weeks of silence, some news from the Nth Island.
I left Christchurch the very morning after the saddest party of this semester : "farewell party", the theme wasn't very merry. Nevertheless, it has been a strange blend (stranger than the Australian, South African and New Zealander white wine blend) : kind of funny stuff mixed with hips of hugs...
The train left Christchurch at 7am, I left the city in the darkness. However, it has been a good trip, crossing the North Canterbury

and following the western coast until Picton.

Kaikoura was as usual,

this beautiful mix of mountains and sea, and fur seals lied down under the sun.

After the crossing of Cook's strait, I met my five future

tripmates and our campervan in Wellington.

We were ready to cross the North Island to Auckland at 6 in this wheelled turtle which will be our home ...

Unfortunaltly, the weather wasn't aware that we should come : the roads going trough the Tongariro area were closed, and snow started to fall. So we decided to avoid the Tongariro and to go straight to Lake Taupo, where we had a pleasant smoky bath, and Rotorua, weird burning city..

We stopped for the night at the hidden valley, which used to be the 8th world's wonder before an earthquake decided something else. It's still very beautiful..

An informatical problem oblige me to stop

see you

yvan

Snow, second

Wednesday, 14th of June
Nice day on the Canterbury's plains, nice day on the tops of the Mount Hutt. Departure at 8am, come back at 6pm, nice ski day. It was the first time I was skiing in June and the first time that it was in front of the Pacific Ocean... ... and with the approval of Lincoln University. So, only a bad day for sheeps... But I have to study now..
See you
yvan

Snow, snow everywhere

Yep, mate, it's snowing...
After a rainy night, I woke up with this surprising surprise : the garden of the university was white, and the university was closed... Three days ago, the weather was so sunny, it's odd...

At 4pm, beginning of sunset above the Southern Alps

and 5pm, sunset above the rugby field

See ya

yvan

Sunday, the 28th of May, mother's day in Europe

Just this cute lullaby which reminds me my chidhood...

Bihotzian khantiak,
Ezpaiñetan potñiak,
Begietan izarrak
Eskietan liliak
Besta hun zuri, ama.
Ama maite maitena,
Ama maite maitena,
Besta hun zuri, ama.

Amodioz gaintika
Xede hunez betheka
Zure haurra heben da
Bihotz oroz deizüla
Besta hun zuri, ama.
Ama maite maitena,
Ama maite maitena,
Besta hun zuri, ama.

Have a good day, lovely mummy
yvan

Saturday, May the 6th

Kia ora, small foal

I wish you will grow well under the Pyrénées' sun ...

yvan

Km 162,000 to 166,250 : South Island road trip

Friday April, 14th
We leave Lincoln to the South. The wild South... and then the West, the North and the East of the South Island. A 'Tour de New-Zealand' in a pulsar. Two weeks travelling in this place where we live for 3 months now...

After an American lunch (peanut butter & strawberry jam sandwiches, thanks Lizzie for having prepared us the best of the North American food) in Caroline Bay, Timaru, we stopped in Oamaru aiming to watch some penguins. No penguins but a lion seal waykeeper and lots of paua shells.

In Moeraki, as all the Asian turists of the aera, we spent some time playing with the boulders, those strange round rocks left on the beach by a volcano or some mystic animal.

We finally slept on the Brighton's beach, somewhere after Dunedin.

Saturday April, 15th
While the sun was rising , we left our beach and the South Island to the Stewart Island, the Southernmost point where we went.
What a good crossing. Just watching the albatrosses, the petrels and the shags, following us and oftent passing us.
It reminded me my chidhood and how my brothers and I were lucky to have sailed in our small ship...Thanks Mum and Dad for having given us the will to travel.
Stewart Island have been fantasticly well, even if those sandflies had fantasticly eaten us. Three days tramping in the native forest, loocking for kiwis (which we finally haven't seen) and using short cuts. Near 8 pm, we felt a smooth earthquake on the Maori Beach.
We finished our trip on Easter Monday, welcome by a good breakfast in the Halfmoon Bay, in front of the rising sun. After a last look on this island, we left the Pacific Ocean for the mountains of Fiordland.

On the way to Mildford Sound, we stopped at Te Anau, on the shore of the lake Te Anau.

The Kepler Mountains behind the lake Te Anau

The Mildford Sound, traditional pictures.. 

Friday April 21st
Ah Toulouse...I'm in Queenstown, drinking a hot chocolate with lavander which remind me Toulouse. Unfortunaitly, it's raining here and, even if a raimbow has just appeared above the Lake Wakatipu and the sunrise was beautiful, the weather is definitively not as good.

Sunrise behind the Remarkables, on the bank of the lake Wakatipu

So I'm in Quenstown, waiting for Céline and Lizzie who went to do some rafting before bungy jumping..Strange city is Queenstown : it looks like a Canadian city (may be because of the lay out of the streets and the colours of the threes in this beginning of autumn) which would have grown on the shore of the Lac Leman. Strange city is Queenstown ; lost somewhere among the tussocks and the mountains, in a place where we don't expect to find something else than tussocks and mountains. However, it's the place in NZ where someone can experiment the bungy-jumping, rafting, sky diving, bungy-swing or jetboating. So many ing-activities, so much noise and speed for me who like to link mounts to silence and quiet. Fortunaitly, we leave tomorow to the summits of the Routeburn track..

Saturday April 22nd

Correction...'to the rainy summits of the Routeburn track'...I'm wet, totally wet, despite the pretty stove of the Mackenzie Hut..

1rst day, wet ...

This tramp reminded me my Pyrénées, even if the summits were here sharper than our old mountains..

2nd day, still wet...
3rd day, wet, but drying...
On the way back...

Monday, April 24th
We left Queenstown, using a silly short-cut. We thought that the car could never climb this amazing road...Just a few minuts at the saddle, to cool the engine, to calm our uncontrollable laugh and to take a last picture of the Remarkables, before going down to the rainy West Coast...

Quickly, we went to brievly look at the Franz Josef glacier,

and the Pancakes Rocks, after a night in the car... So, we quickly passed the West Coast..

Wednesday, April 26th

We are in the Abel Tasman's area, in Motueka, leaving in sea-kayaks for two days on the Tasman Sea. The first one has been great, sunny, fun and ... wet, but "saltyly" wet.The second one has been rainy, cold and 'wavy'. Our little kayaks were dancing on the wave near the shore under the storm..Nelson, the center of New-Zealand and the artistic capital of the Southern Island, warmed us, and we came back by Picton and the Marlborough Sounds and Kaikoura, to collect some data on the Fur seals.

A great little silly trip...

yvan

Km 161 250 : driving in the hills

Aiming to enjoy the good weather we had this morning, I went to the Rakaia's Gorges, one hour below Christchurch.
Unfortunaitly, it began to rain when I decided to swim in the blues waters of the river.



So I decided to come back by the long ways, by the hills.

A pukeko (Porphyrio porphyrio)

feeding on a shoulder of the road

Funny hilly country...

See you

yvan

Satellite...

A satellite image (NASA, 2003) to show you where are the places where we went..
Click on the picture once, then maximise it..

Pulsar : 0 Km, Yvan : Km 380

March 10 to 12th : Field trip week-end in Kaikoura Peninsula, in the North of Christchurch.
Officially, we were there to study the behaviour of marine life (determination of the preferred hauling out sites of Arctocephalus forsteri, for me and two 'colleagues'), but according to our lecturers, we went there to enjoy the amazing place of Kaikoura.

Unfortunaitly, the vans which brought us to the peninsula weren't as comfortable as our Pulsar, so it was prohibited to sleep and compulsory to watch the rural landscape we crossed : dry hills where water erosion an wind carved the soils, drawing ways sometimes comparable to them of the Bardenas valleys, in Navarra, Spain...

We finally arrived in the Canterbury Uni's lodge, in front of the bay, under the clouds burnt by the sunset. Meeting with Eudyptula minor, a little blue pinguin.

Saturday March 11th :
Let's study the fur seals : some pictures, walking on the cliffs












The NZ landscape...without sheeps but with ships

On of the best hauling out sites, often full of turists

Arctocephalus forsteri, lying down and Homo sapiens sapiens, writting

Without Pulsar ...

...walking back from the beaches to the lodge















The evening has been illuminated by a really wonderful sunset . .
Have a look on these pictures..

On the sunday, we went to observe a breeding colony of fur seals. There, under the rain, we could watch the pups, learning how to swim in rockpools. Seen three dolphins playing in the waves..

On the way back, stopping to enjoy the ballet of Albatrosses among the waves, flying so close to the top of the water, I remembered the Baudelaire's poem, sung by Léo Ferré..

Souvent, pour s'amuser, les hommes d'équipage Prennent des albatros, vastes oiseaux des mers, Qui suivent, indolents compagnons de voyage, Le navire glissant sur les gouffres amers.

A peine les ont-ils déposés sur les planches, Que ces rois de l'azur, maladroits et honteux, Laissent piteusement leurs grandes ailes blanches Comme des avirons traîner à coté d'eux.

Ce voyageur ailé, comme il est gauche et veule! Lui, naguère si beau, qu'il est comique et laid! L'un agace son bec avec un brûle-gueule, L'autre mime, en boitant, l'infirme qui volait!

Le Poête est semblable au prince des nuées Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l'archer; Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées, Ses ailes de géant l'empêchent de marcher.

see you
yvan

Km 160,750 and Co

Friday March 3rd, we left Lincoln and the flat landscapes of Canterbury's plains to the steeper slopes of the Aoraki Mount Cook.
After an amazing roadsign, the longest bridge in NZ and couple of half hours spent in loocking for our way in the hills behind Geraldine, South Canterbury, we finnaly arrived near the Tekapo Lake where we slept.
There, in the coast of the lake, the Pulsar could show us it capacity in driving in short cuts...

Waiting for the sunrise in the Tekapo Lake

Right : Sunrise on the Tekapo Lake

Km 161,055

First view (just below) of the Aoraki Mount Cook, covered with snow. Even if the weather is not the best, what a beautiful mountain!

Km 161,090

Arriving near the Pukaki Lake, whom water comes from the Mount Cook glaciers. Its colour is due to suspended particles brought there by the glacier's rivers.

Km 161,100

The magestic Aoraki Mount Cook in its valley

and the also majestic Mount Sefton and its glacier

Arrived in the arms of the Mount Cook, we walked in the direction of the Hooker Galcier. There, 400m upper than the valley, we met the famous Kea (Nestor notabilis), an higly social and inquisitive mountain parrot.

Doing down to the valley : the vegetation seems tropical whereas we are in high mountains !?

.........................Km 161,150

The pulsar in the Tasman Glacier Valley. In roadtracks we trust..

On the way back, the lake Tekapo still "blueing"

The rugby match of this evening obliges us with coming back before the sunset on the mountains. .No worries, we enjoy the farmer supporter of the Christchurch's Crusaders :

On these holy words, see you...

yvan

Have an inquisitive eye on these blogs
http://boulettes-in-nz.over-blog.com
and
http://geant-vert.over-blog.net/
...

Day 7, Km 160,500

Saturday Feb. 25th.
We go to the Arthur's Pass National Park, for a 2 days hikking trip.
The Pulsar is full of the greatest New-Zealander food and ready to start......unfortunatly, the tank's oil is empty, dry and extra dry... Having avoided this materials problems filling in the oil's tank in the Lincoln's Challenge! petrol station, we start again to new ventures in the New-Zealander mountains.

Km 160,550 : difficult pass of the first saddle. Others will follow, but we will be walking...

Km 160,560 : lovely places

and nice pictures...

Km 160, 600 : We finally arrived at the departure point near the Craigieburn River...

2 days walking 6 hours a day in the Craigieburn area, among the steep dark and eroded mountains

, the old man beard's trees

and the dry but windy saddles...

The way back was as much exiting than the outward journey : unfortunaitly, we were overtaken by a boat arriving from the West Coast, a Pacific bus, a Kiwi Post's truck and a lot of bad cars less designed than our Pulsar...

See you next week...

thom & yvan

Day 4

Killed : two birds crossing the road without looking on the right then on the left

Day 2, or 0

Car : DATSUN Sentra (Pulsar)
Vehicle year : 1988
First year registered in NZ : 7/1993
Engine : Nissan, 1.6L capacity
Operating fuel type : Regular 91
Registration plate number : SB1649
Automatic gear ans windows...yeah!

Day one.

Hy guys!
How're you going?
This website is dedicated to the Datsun Pulsar we bought at the Backpacker's car marcket on Saturday Feb. 18th

Some photos from the Bank's Peninsula's town Akaroa

Will came other pictures of this fantastic and amazing car....