New Zealand Day 18: Twizel - Mt Cook - Christchurch

Thursday March 13

Today was our last official day of the tour, as tomorrow we start our long trip back home.  We visited Mt Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand.  Mt Cook is covered in clouds 75% of the time, so we were lucky and got to see part of it.  The trip back included areas that looked like battlefields out of "Lord of the Ring".  Christchurch is still recovering from its earthquakes.  The downtown is still devastated.  The old brick and mortar buildings did not do so well.  Wood buildings survived the quake much better.

Vera with Mt Cook in the background

Mt Cook glaciers

Glacial lake, Mt Cook obscured by clouds in the background

Cargo containers being used to hold buildings up in downtown Christchurch

Christchurch cathedral lost its spire in the first quake, then more damage in the second

New Zealand Day 17: Dunedin - Twizel

Wednesday March 12

Today we visited Larnach Castle, the only castle in New Zealand, and were pleasantly surprised with the beauty of the castle and the story behind it.  We traveled along the Pacific coast for a while, seeing interesting rock formations and limestone buildings.  It was rather cool and windy, although not a cloud in the sky.  Turning inland the climate changed to warmer and dryer.  It reminded us both of the Bend area of eastern Oregon.  Food continues to be excellent, with way too much, particularly the desserts.

Interesting facts about New Zealand:  New Zealand drifted away from Austrailia before mammals had time to develop.  With the exception of one species of bat, there are no native mammals.  But there are lots of exotic birds, many unique to the country.  Unfortunately, with the arrival of humans about 700 years ago, they are going extinct at an alarming rate. 

Pacific sea coast

Larnach Castle near Dunedin

Morning tea

Moeraki boulders

Limestone building (one of many) in Oamaru

New Zealand Day 16: Te Anau - Dunedin

Tuesday March 11

Today was mostly travel through rolling hills on the way to Dunedin.  We saw a lot of sheep.  Dunedin is called the Edinburgh of the south because of the Scottish influence.  We even got to take part in a haggis ceremony.  Looks like dog food and tastes like liver wurst.  Vera even found another quilt shop and picked up more interesting fabric.

A note on our weather:  Other than the big storm in Christchurch, it has been quite nice, although a little cool.  You can feal the days getting shorter.  I imagine they are getting shorter at about the same rate our days are getting longer.  Consequently, the days feel very fall like.  The mornings tend to be crisp, with low hanging clouds or fog that burns off by noon.  Our driver told us that the leaves would be turning in about 2 or 3 weeks.  The humidity has been quite low, surprisingly so.  New Zealand rarely has forest fires, as the droughts are very short lived.  On the north island the dairy farmers were complaining because there had been no rain in a month; a true New Zealand drought.  In fact the fields were brown when they should have been green.  Everything is quite green on the south Island, but that may be because of last week's storm.  There are rumors right now of a cyclone near Fiji and heading towards Auckland, but not to arrive until just after we leave.

Train station in Dunedin

First church built in Dunedin

Haggis ceremony, complete with haggis

Birds we found in the Dunedin botanical garden

New Zealand Day 15: Te Anau - Milford Sound - Te Anau

Monday March 10

We traveled to Milford Sound today for a short boat ride before returning to our hotel.  This is the most rugged country we have seen; unfortunately there was a lot of overcast for much of the trip.  This is quite common for the area, as it looks like a rain forest.  Milford Sound is a fiord, and there is no way to capture its height and steepness.

Rock carved out by water near Milford Sound

Fern in the rainforest

Milford Sound 

Fur seals

Our boat on the sound

Kea on the road home

New Zealand Day 14-Queenstown to Te Anau (via Arrowtown)

Sunday March 9

Today was a relatively short travel day to Te Anau.  The weather has been great.  We got to see the iconic New Zealand bungy jump location near Queenstown and watched a few jumpers.  I couldn't talk Vera into taking the leap.  Arrowtown is an old gold mining town with a neat downtown and nifty little museum.  Finally found some bones from the now extinct moa.  The big ones were 12 feet tall.  We traveled through a region aptly called "The Lake District".  The lake our hotel is near, Te Anau, is around 1200 feet deep and the largest lake by volume in New Zealand.  Lots of other large lakes as well.

Getting ready

A scream all the way down

Pickup in the river

Moa display at Arrowtown museum

New Zealand-Day 13 (Sat Mar 8)

Queenstown

Queenstown is beautiful; a must see.  We started with a beautiful view out our hotel window and then a brisk walk into town.  There were lots of touristy shops and places to eat.  We even used Starbucks a couple of times to get internet access.  The gondola ride up the side of the mountain is one of the highlights.  From the top you got great views and options for bungee jumping, paragliding, and a luge.  For dinner we took the T. S. S. Earnshaw to the other side of the lake  for an unbelieveable dining experience.

View from our room in the morning

Seen on our walk into town

Taken from the top of the gondola ride

Our hotel from top of gondola

T.S.S Earnslaw

On the way to dinner

Walter Peak Station dinner accommodations 

New Zealand Day 12 (Friday March 7)

Franz Josef to Queenstown

Today we traveled through the most rugged country yet.  We started with glaciers.  It was weird to be almost at sea level in what looked almost like a tropical rainforest, and then drive only a few miles to find a glacier.  The valley walls appeared steeper and higher than what I have seen in the states, and covered in dense foliage growing right out of rocks.  On the other side of the divide, it was dryer, not unlike eastern Washington/Oregon.  Again, steeper and deeper canyons, but now with sparse vegetation.  There were many large lakes, one of which reminded me of Lake Chelan (except for the palm trees)

Statues of the huge and now extinct moa in front of our hotel

Small glacial lake

Terminus of Fox Glacier

Red lichen

Glacial peak

New Zealand sea shore

Coming down the other side of the pass

New Zealand-Day 11 (Thu Mar 6)

Christchurch to Franz Josef

We awoke to clear skies, beautiful weather, and newspaper headlines describing their 100 year flood.  I don't know about that, but parts of Christchurch did sink about 1.5 feet in the earthquake, and many of the storm sewers are still damaged.  We had no time for a city tour, but headed to the train station for the ride up to Arthur's Pass before reboarding our bus for the trip to Franz Josef.  It was totally different scenery from the north island; rugged, glaciated mountains much like Washington (except for the animals and vegetation).  Unfortunately, the higher elevations were cloudy with only occasional sightings of the glaciers until this evening when they came into view.

Kea Bird-a New Zealand parrot near Author's Pass

Typical vegetation along the way

View from dinner tonight: palm trees with glaciers in the background