Living my dream

The Great Bear Lodge - a bucket list trip part four final - photo heavy

So nearly there. Just a few more photos of in particular some gorgeous little cubs. Let's take a look.

Isn't that amazing? Real life at work.

First thing in the morning, a mum and her cub enjoying a feast of salmon.

Another day of more than one bear in front of us. Wondering where to look, what to watch. Fascinated by them all.

When you sit there watching them over a period of days, you start to feel like you know them. Like you can go up to them and cuddle them. Then you see their claws and you realise that they could kill you with one swipe of those 'cuddly' paws.

And then you take another look and you see the beauty of where you are and you marvel at how amazing it is. 

And you wonder how on earth you got so lucky to be sitting there watching the world go by from the bears point of view.

And then to make your last morning even more special, this wee girl came across the river, up the bank, beside us, across the road into the forest and behind the bus, then back out again onto the road. We watched her the whole way. It was fabulous.

I mean, it was unreal.

We didn't understand why this little lady was on the move and then turned around to discover this mumma bear with two young cubs. We think this was their first year, they were still young, but the mother had done an amazing job bringing them up and all were looking incredibly healthy.

I was so grateful to see a mother bear with two cubs. Lucky to have seen it a few times, there is just something so incredible about babies. 

But then it was time for lunch and a quick trip out in the boats before I flew out of there. 

A bit like these geese.

But before I did, I had one more chance to see things, and we came across the Mumma from before with her cubs on a foraging spree on some grassy land.

When I took these photos we were not more than 20ft from the shoreline and these gorgeous animals. And because we were on the river, we were at the same sort of level as them and could look straight into their eyes. I felt at one with the bears.

See that little one on the left, with the blonder face. Apparently s/he has been trouble with a capital T for Mumma bear all season. Trying to explore, wanting to give things a go. While it's twin was much more cautious. Even in the time I saw them, I could see their personalities.

This picture is another of my favourites.

And while we were watching these beauties, across the river was an otter. Wow! 

After this last outing, it was time for me to leave. I cried as we took off. Watching the 3 new guests arriving and remembering the feeling I had when I first arrived. And wishing I could have shared this with my family. I know that one day I will take them back.

The Great Bear Lodge - a bucket list trip - part three - photo heavy

Well, I'm still going along on my reminiscing of one of the best trips of my life. Let's get into part three.....

After the amazing Thanksgiving dinner, I woke up the next morning to possible showers and the 'usual' fog.

Just so stunning. I was given the opportunity to go to a new hide today. It was just new and was open. It meant being just that bit closer to the bears than in the other hide. Although it was only a short distance further along.

We got there and saw a bear immediately.

Isn't that view amazing? Especially knowing bears are just across the river!

And then that bear just up and started to walk over, towards the river. What was it doing?

Emma got up and walked to the edge of the platform and started talking to it, just to remind it we were there.

But it kept on coming.

Closer and closer

Until it was just in front of us. Just right there in the middle of the river. 

You can see the river isn't very deep here and the bears just wander along in it.

It kept going, past us and down to another part of the river where they tended to sit and fish in the water. We found out why it had up and moved on as just a few minutes later a mother and her TWO cubs came along...

Now I didn't know where to look. The Mum and cubs or the bear fishing.

Love the expression in this photo!

On the way back to the lodge, we stopped and Tom (one of the owners) and Emma showed me one of the 'bear highways'. A path that the bears have formed to get around the forest. At the edge of it is an area the bears walk back and forth to mark their scent, a tree which they rub against, for the same reason and a 'bath' waterhole where they swim to again mark their scent. This area was described to me as 'facebook for bears'. Any bear coming along from either direction will know which other bear has been there and roughly when. Amazing stuff!

We made our way back to the lodge for lunch and it looked stunning. 

 I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but there seems to be an unwritten law between the bears and humans here. Anything on the water, you don't go near (if you're a bear), and you don't go onto 'land' if you're human without a guide. The bears are known to get as close as this entrance, but I didn't see any that close. This is also where the bus and car are parked when not in use. I just adore that bus!

After lunch we went for a walk. There was Emma our guide, two of the cleaners, one of the volunteers and me. We wandered along the road and into the forest to view it all from a different angle. 

There is always a very real chance of coming face to face with a bear when you do this, so there are rules to stick to. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we didn't see any on our walk. But we did get to see lots of evidence that they were there!

Pawprints.

Poo

Hair on another rubbing tree

And lots of other beautiful sights too...

And this cairn was a marker where the road went across a bridge. I loved it. It reminded me we were about half way long the bus trip to the hide (it was BUMPY!).

And I think I'll leave it there for now. 

Only one more day to show you and some amazing photos of a mother and her cubs. I was treated to some really up close views and the cubs were almost as curious about us as we were about them.

 

The Great bear lodge - a bucket list trip - part two - photo heavy

Hi again. Well, part two is about to begin and again is very photo heavy, so grab that cuppa and wander through my memories with me......

The next morning it was straight back to the hide to hopefully see more bears. We arrived and one was already there. The morning only got better as we sat and watched.

All the bears I saw on my trip were grizzly's. The Black bears stay away when they are around. 

This one was digging for salmon eggs. There had been a flood a couple of weeks before I got there, and alot of the eggs got moved onto the rocky shelf where they were easy for the bears to find. This bear dug and dug and dug for AGES, then did this.....

We were glad we got there before it did this, as it lay in the water for ages, totally still. We thought it actually had a wee snooze. And if it was like this when we had arrived, we'd have thought it had died there. Then it just got up and started digging holes again. Classic. No salmon for this bear this morning.

Then we heard all this rustling and cracking of branches. A bear was coming. We watched as it made its way down the bank.

There they were in front of me, going about their daily routines. It was simply stunning to think of them doing this every day. They were all big and round having eaten all summer. They were only a few weeks from going into hibernation and were busily eating as much as they could before they did.

And as I sat on the side of the hide, watching the bear across the river, this one just wandered by. So close I could have reached out and touched him. He was realtively young and simply beautiful. That paw print I saw before may have been his. He was looking across the river at the bear still digging for eggs.

 And then he decided to go across....

(still very close to us)

As you can see there are a couple of bears on the other side of the river now, plus the one that came out of the woods further to the right of the picture. We were trying to work out what was going on as bears are solitary animals and we were worried trouble was about to happen.

This beautiful boy (who had come out of the woods) was also worried. 

But this one crossing the river had no fear! He kept going and went directly towards the boy on the other side.

Who decided it might be a good idea to take off.....only to come back a few minutes later. 

We watched them circle each other wondering what would happen. And then the play fighting began. Emma hadn't seen this before. She kept saying how lucky I was to see this happening. 

They kinda stopped for a while and we thought it was all over, but then they came back to each other again and I held my breath as they stood up and fought each other some more.

These two photos are probably my favourite of the whole trip. At this point it was incredibly quiet. I thought bears would make a growling noise, but no, no noise, not even while they are fighting. They just quietly got on with their fight. In fact it was eerily quiet.

Meanwhile during the fight this bear was still sitting there digging for and eating eggs.

Before wandering off to catch salmon that was still swimming upstream.

And then taking a dip in a deeper part of the water (actually I don't know if this one is the same bear). But they did love this part of the river which was a bit deeper so they could sit, catch salmon then eat it.

Oh yes! I saw plenty of this! Salmon caught, wandering to the bank to devour in peace.

And then another bear decided to wander past our hide. I think we now had 6 bears in front of us, at once. SIX! 

Here's a look at the entrance to the hide. The bus gets parked where I'm standing taking the photo, the guide you are with gets off and chats to the bears so they know we are there, then we as the tourist can get off and make our way to the hide. The little 'path' to the right side of the hide is where bears have been known to make their way through.

And this is a 'typical' view of the road. After lunch we went for a blat on the boats. I was shown this secret little hideaway where a stunning waterfall was. We saw starfish then went looking for bears.

Along the way, I got to see the most gorgeous 'chocolate box' scenery. People say NZ is beautiful, I might have to concede that this little patch of the world might just be equal to NZs beauty?!

 

And then we got to an area we were hoping to see some bears. See all those white dots in the photos below? They are all dead rotting salmon.

Because they are all here, the bears often come down to scoop them up and eat them. Unfortunately there were none there today, but we got to see how the cycle of life worked and Emma got out of the boat and dragged us around to see if she could see some other wildlife.

It was pretty amazing. The salmon is just everywhere at this time of the year. Once they've spawned, they die. If the bears don't eat them, they become 'compost'. They are a huge part of the eco-system and are everywhere. In fact so much so that you can smell the rotting salmon everywhere.

While I was there, Canada had their Thanksgiving. I was totally spoilt and the whole team got together for dinner and a celebration that night.

I've already told you how amazing Glen the chef was. Well he made us all a delicious dinner and we had a great evening chatting about bears, what got everyone to the lodge, how it all started etc. 

Emma my 'main' guide took the photo, everyone else had jobs at the lodge and made my stay truely wonderful.

And I think I'll leave it here for now. I will have another post to follow up. Catch ya soon.

Great Bear Lodge, British Columbia, Canada... a bucket list trip part one ..... photo heavy

Last year I visited Canada. Just a small part of it, in a short time frame. I went to see Bears feeding on Salmon as they swam up stream to lay their eggs. 

It has long been on my bucket list to do this and it just seemed like the perfect thing to do when I was already close last year.

I haven't shared any of my photos here yet as to be honest, there were just so many photos that I couldn't face going through them all and working out what ones I wanted to share etc. 

Well, that changed this week. For some reason I took a look at them and decided it was time. And so I went through goodness only knows how many, and chose my favourites. Man it was amazing. Took me right back there. I am so lucky.

Still, there are around 100 to share. So what I'm going to do is share them over a few posts so you don't get too overloaded. Although in saying that, there are still going to be a ton of photos to look at in each post.

So without further ado, here's a wee insight into one of the best trips of my life.

 

It started with a short trip from Vancouver to Port Hardy on a tiny little plane. Tiny. 

No worries about door security through to the pilot! There was no door! But there was beautiful scenery to keep you occupied.

Glorious fog/clouds with mountains poking their heads through. Beautiful.

Port Hardy is a small town at the top of Vancouver Island. It doesn't have many shops, but the pub I went to for lunch was pretty good! As I waited for my sea plane to take me to the Great Bear Forest, I wandered the town and got my bearings. Thankfully I didn't find out til later that bears can be known to wander around. I didn't see any then.

 

Like NZ Canada was occupied with a native group before others came along and I found out they are refered to as 'Aboriginals'. What I LOVED were the totum poles found here and another place I went after my bear journey.

 It is a very rugged looking town and has such beauty because of this.

Walking back to catch my sea plane, I saw my first bald eagle. I still feel my heart get excited as I think about this moment, watching it fly out and around and back to its roost. Wow!

I loved this mural painted onto one of the buildings. It really shows the atmosphere of the area.

Unfortunately I was a few weeks late for the orca, but that was ok. I was there for the bears!

Getting into the sea plane, I was allowed to sit in the front seat, right next to the pilot and got some great photos. The Great Bear Lodge is around 30-40 mins flying from Port Hardy north towards even colder parts of Canada (I went at the end of summer and it was cold!). The views were outstanding and I quickly found out very typical of what I was to experience over the next few days.

And then finally I got my first glimpse of 'home' for the next 3 days.

Yep a lodge floating on water. It was Ah . ma . zing! I knew it was going to be like this. But had no idea of really what that meant. It meant that at night, when lights were turned out, it was pitch black! It meant no shops. No other people. Just us (myself and the team) and the wild. I was the only person on the schedule so had the whole lodge and staff to myself. When breakfast was made, they asked me what I would like. I could have whatever I wanted. It was so decadent! And when we went out to look at the bears, it was just me and the guide. Truly amazing.

 I was welcomed with a sign telling me what was going on and a fabulous welcome! Plus warm home made cookies! Sigh. Glen was/is the best chef!

Afternoon tea set up for me. 

Love the flag and see those boats? I went out in those to see more of the wilderness and bears!

My bedroom was in the top left window! And just check out the bus we traveled in, in the next photo....

I would often take myself outside to read my book while having a cuppa, but would instead just sit and take in the beauty of where I was. You are going to get sick of reading this word, but it was AMAZING. 

And after I'd settled in, we went out to sit in the hide and see our first bears. Being wild animals, there was no guarantee I'd see any bears at any time, but I was incredibly lucky with what I saw.

These were the first bears we saw. A mother and her cub. Probably 2-3 years old. My heart was singing as I stood there in awe of what I was seeing. My favourite animal out in the wild doing what it does best. Living. Surviving. 

We made it to the hide (saw those bears from the bus that takes you to the various hides along the road they've made for us 'tourists').

In the hide, I saw my first bear foot print. Right there, in front of me, in the sand. Wow! They are so close. They are here!

  And just out in the river, my first glimpse of what happens to the salmon, bears or not.

 They die. They come up stream, lay their eggs, then die. They are part of the whole system, if they didn't do this, the bears wouldn't have food, and the forest wouldn't have the nitrogen it gets when they disintegrate and go back to the earth. I had no idea. Ignorance. But made for interesting conversations in the hide as we sat in the cold waiting.

And this is a very typical view of what you see looking out of the hide. My main guide (Emma) and I decided that when there were lots of seagulls around, then there would be lots of bears. It seemed to work each time. Goodness only knows if we were right or just tinny.

You can see we are very close to the where the bears come to eat.

And there were plenty more bald eagles to watch fly past if there were no bears at hand.

 

At the back of the lodge is a group of seals who come up onto the logs each evening and morning. Wow!

Ok, that's about it for now. I will come back with more asap. But I think this gives a great intro and idea of where I was and what it all looked like.

It was AMAZING!

White Island - an amazing trip

Last year Matt and I started climbing all the volcanoes in Auckland. Some of them aren't even there anymore. They've been quaried away, or blown away. But we're slowly making our way through them and really enjoying it.

So I thought it might be nice to go to a live volcano and brought tickets on a "White Island Tour" for the family for Xmas.

And I have to say it was amazing.

The water on the way out in the boat was crystal clear and flat as a pancake. It was amazing. And for a 2 hour journey, I'm so glad. We were lucky enough to see a beautiful pod of dolphins and so the boat stayed and we watched for a while. Stunning.

The tour was big on safety and we all had to wear helmets and they provided us with gas masks too. Thankfully. There were parts of the tour that we needed them!

The island looked very similar to what I had imagined. If you've tramped Ngarahoe, then you can imagine what it looks like. Just like that!

Just behind us in this photo was a vent belching sulpher. It was at this point we all started to wear our gas masks. If we didn't, it made your throat constrict. It was very uncomfortable. But part of being on a live volcano. The tour did give us hard sweets to suck on to help as well. It was a great touch and worked a treat.

And then we got up to the main crater where all the main eruptions occur...

We were able to get pretty close to the crater but it didn't have any lava coming out of it or anything. LOL. 

 

We walked around in groups sticking to the paths so nothing untoward happened to us. 

There was a lot of bubbling mud pools just like in Rotorua. 

At the end of the tour we came across the factory where alot of work happened before it all closed down. There were just ruins and it was very pretty.

When we got back to the boat, we were able to have a swim (jumping off the boat) and had some lunch - it was GREAT!

Then it was the journey back to Whakatane. The kids were exhausted. Matt and Dan both fell asleep.

We didn't do alot these school holidays, so this was our main holiday. Down at Ohope Beach, and this day trip. It was well worth it. So much learnt from the guides. An amazing experience being so close to nature in it's raw elements and a beautiful NZ day to boot.

Does anyone remember that ad when we were growing up, something about 'don't leave home til you've seen the country'? Well, this was one of those holidays, and I'd highly recommend it!

We went to Hobbiton

I've never been a huge Hobbiton fan. Don't get me wrong. I truely enjoyed the books as a child and have loved seeing the movies with my children as an adult, but I didn't think too much about all the hype about the movie set until my niece shared her excitement about going. I said, let's go then and we arranged to go in the holidays and boy am I glad!!!!

 

 

It was just stunning! We had a bit of a funny start with my silly GPS taking us way off the beaten track to get there. But again, it was so worth it. Stunning scenery! Then getting there, having some lunch at the cafe (delicious!!!), then jumping on a typical old NZ country school bus to get to the set.

 

 

We learnt so much from that bus journey and the wonderful driver. All about where things were set up, how the set was found and so on. It was so interesting!

Our guide (Dan) was also full of energy and keen to show us all the set with fun and information. 

 

 

My sister and I kept going "wow, this is so beautiful". We really couldn't believe how amazing this part of the country was and how well they had preserved the set. We both commented to each other how realistic it looked and that we were expecting a pack of rampaging Orcs on horseback to come riding over the hills.

 

 

 

The kids enjoyed the tour as much as us adults, if not more.

One of the things I found so amazing was Peter Jacksons attention to detail. In the book, it talked about hobbits sitting around under plum trees. Well, the farm had pears and apples, not plums. So they took off each pear, each apple, each leaf and replaced them with plums and plum leaves. Just for a 3 second part in the movie.

 

 

The tree above Bilbo Baggins house had 220,000 leaves added to it. Amazing! Who would like to have that job? Not me! But it was done for authenticity and I have to say wow to someone with such focus and vision.

 

 

The Green dragon was FANTASTIC. A great way to end the tour. I wish we had more time there to leisurely drink and eat in such glorious surroundings.

 

 

We went on a day that was drizzling on and off. Overcast. Not sunny. But it was still one of, if not my most favourite 'tour' taken in NZ. I think if you have just one day here in New Zealand, and you want to see the countryside and a bit of special magic, then this is the tour to do. And if you're a kiwi and haven't been yet. Set some time aside and make the trip. So very very worth it!

To find out more, just click on the tour website.

Hellllooooooo everyone

Well, anyone that's still around and watching my poor forgotten blog! Grin. I can't believe I've been away for 4.5 weeks! Where did that time go? Well, I know. A little bit of travel. Grin. I can't wait to share with you, but haven't even found the time to go through my photos properly yet. Well, maybe I'll share one from the beginning of our trip. Hawaii's North Shore. Take away dinner on the beach. Stunning sunset. LOVE.

 

As I said on facebook, it was amazing after over 26 hours of traveling to fly over NZ, see Auckland, Rangitoto and know I was home. Such an incredible feeling. It gives me goosebumps everytime I do it.

I missed my family incredibly. Ok, so it was only 2.5 weeks, but that's the longest I've ever been away from them. And while everything was the same, it felt like so much had changed. Both boys look like they've grown up so much since I've been gone.

And now at some ridiculous hour of the morning I'm awake and rearing to go. LOL. Admittedly I did go to bed nice and early. So bear with me while I adjust back to NZ time, go through my inbox, remember things as I wander through my photos. I will be back with more soon.

Have a wonderful day!