Nov 21-24: Canterbury Tails

So, after the hectic stay in Queenstown, we were ready for a change of pace. Geraldine would serve that purpose for us. Geraldine is a small rural town in the Canterbury region of the south island. It's an area that is mostly agricultural, it's known for honey, and paddock after paddock of grazing animals. It served as a mid-way point between Queenstown and Blenheim, so we don't need to drive as far in one stretch. We decided to stay on a venison farm while there. The farm had a cute little cottage in the yard. It was a single bedroom, kitchenette and living room. A decent place to stay, and much less uncomfortable than actually staying in a farm house. The farm is mainly venison, but they raise a few cows for beef and a handful of sheep, mostly for their own consumption. The rolling hills and distant mountains provided a perfect backdrop for relaxing. When we got there, we had dinner with our hosts, Dave and Nikki, and their son Daniel. It was venison, raised on their farm and was amazingly delicious.

Our first day, we spent the first part of the day in Geraldine, which was a completely charming little town. We stopped into a cafe for a scone and flat white. Delicious as always. Then we walked around through a few shops, our favorite of which was this little shop that sold fruit juices, jams and sauces. They were all made from local ingredients, in combinations like blackcurrant blueberry juice. Delicious! We bought a bottle of kiwifruit wine, and took that back to the farm. We then headed out for a little walk around the farm. We climbed up to one of the highest paddocks and walked down towards a wooded section of the farm. At the edge of the woods, we saw something moving in a bush. A tiny fawn came stumbling out. It was clearly only a few days old, still shaky on its feet. And then it looked straight at us and started walking towards us. We got out of there fast, before its mother found us.

The next morning, we headed out to the peel forest for a rafting trip on the Rangitata river. We were a little nervous, because this river is one of the only rivers in NZ that has grade 5 rapids in any level of water flow. Grade 5 is the highest grade that you can raft and still have the option of ending up upright. But it's not a guarantee that you'll keep the right side down. We started off on flat water, with our guide training us through the commands, and paddling. We then hit a few of the small grade 2 rapids, which gave us some practice for the bigger ones. Our guide, Cam was an incredible leader for our raft. Then things got more fun. We hit some grade 3 rapids, navigated them expertly. We stopped briefly before our first grade 5 rapid, and almost overshot it because of a strong tailwind. The rapid was called Roostertail. It was a short distance, but a big drop. We survived upright, and everybody stayed in the boat. Then we hit our second grade 5, called The Pinch, which was a narrow point in the river, making it very fast and bouncy. Again, we made it through. We stopped after that for some "surfing." We paddled into a wave in the rapids, where we were going upstream. The boat got stuck there, and the front of the boat started to submerge and the back lifted up. Our guide moved three people to the front, and the boat really sunk under the wave. I got thrown over the side of the raft, and my paddle went floating downstream. I was essentially leaning in the water outside the boat, and held on with my feet as I flipped my body back into the boat. After that, everything went smoothly, we finished the trip and headed back.


When we got back, Dave took us out for a farm tour. We saw an incredible cliff on his property, and then he took us bushwacking across a stream, and into a pasture full of his neighbor's dairy cattle. Once there, he decided to lay down in the pasture and wait for the cows to all come around and surround him. He was hoping to get the cows to lick his face. Oh, did I mention that Dave is a little crazy? Then we walked back into the farm where we saw a fawn running, so Dave jumped out of the ATV and grabbed it. He put it on Emily's lap and we petted a baby fawn. Kinda cool. Overall, the farm was very nice, a beautiful farm. The cottage was decent, but there were a lot of spiders in it, and Dave was maybe a little too crazy, but overall it was a good experience.