March 31

Awake to a brilliant sunrise over Mt. Cook. Forecast at Information Center last night called for rain, maybe later after we’re gone. Bags out and ready to roll by 8:30 for today we leave the mountainous area and drive to Christchurch which was heavily damaged over the past 10 years ago by big earthquakes that were centered under the town and only 6km deep.  The first part of our journey takes us back over the same road that took us into the park yesterday following Lake Hawea.  We enter the foot hills of the Southern Alps. This is what NZ calls their continental divide mountains that range from north to south.  Many ranges make up the Alps like the Remarkables in Oueensland.  This area has all kinds of farming but it requires a lot of irrigation or nothing would grow here.  Stopped at Omarama for a brief coffee break and looked around at a local antique and collectable store where they have a road sign from Seward Alaska.  Drove by another large glacier lake for hydro power Lake Pukaki.  Stopped briefly at Lake Tekapo, another dammed lake for power, the town is brand new and sprung up with holiday cottages.  The tiny old stone Church of the Shepherd sits on an outcropping with windows looking over the lake and mountains.  Nearby is a statue of a sheep dog, giving tribute to their work.  There are two kinds of dogs, one that stars down the sheep and another that barks at them.  We have entered beautiful low rolling green hills, looks like England or Amish country in Ohio.  There are no barns for stock, they are never inside. Stopped at the cute old town of Geraldine, primarily a center for the farming community.  We see the Guinness Book of records largest knitted sweater and old time butcher.  A meat pie and sausage roll give us sustenance to move on. We are passing through the Canterbury Plains, the largest area of flat land in NZ.  Crops and stock are the main stay here. We finally see railroad tracks, seems to be used to move product and not people and is limited in location.  Settler farmers installed huge hedge rows that border the properties, cut flat on one side with a special industrial trimmer.  They are being cut as newer dairy industry wants them gone.  We enter Christ Church and the outskirts looks like any other city, many locals are building houses out here because the land is supposed to be more stable.  We stop at the Canterbury Museum with an exterior that looks like Tudor England.  This building does not seem to have suffered too much damage but we start to see the buildings around us have.  The Museum is stuffed with all sorts of memorabilia from old Christ Church, artifacts from Maori’s, science center and lots on Antarctica expeditions.  Next door is the very beautiful Royal Botanical Gardens.  Lots of ‘old fashioned’ flowers and roses, all profuse.  Beautiful visitor center and café, fountains and follies.  But what is most notable are the trees.  This trip has shown us a great variety of trees but their size and shapes of their trunks and i canopies are eye popping.  Some are indigenous and others have been imported and they like it here.  There are American sequoias that seem to touch the skies and the cedars are always majestic.  We have come far enough north that we are seeing palm trees and eucalyptus trees again, part of the native plants growing here.  We watched a news show that was all in Maori language with English subtitles. They are much more assertive than the Aboriginals in Aus. They were cannibalistic when it came to defeated male warriors.  We have been assured we are in not danger these days. They are Polynesian in origin showing in their physical traits and arts.  Very handsome people by conventional standards, built stockier than ABs.  And it seems they have not been in NZ for very long, hundreds of years instead of the Abs 40,000 years. Christ Church sits on very unstable ground with a couple shallow fault lines.  They have access to the South Pacific Ocean as they are on the east coast.  The wind here has a chill, they are in autumn.  Our hotel, the Rendezvous, is in the center of town.  The hotel we would normally have stayed at is boarded up from damage.  All around us are bit lots where the buildings have been taken down or lots with new building or lots with boarded up buildings.  We walk by the famous Christ Church Cathedral, lots of stone, stained glass and slate roof.  It looks like a bomb was dropped on it.  There is a huge disagreement about what to do with it so there it stands in horrific splendor.  Stop at the Hermitage Hotel, an historic Government House building that has been transformed.  Very beautiful, we stop for a drink and the waitress tells us they had done a restructure prior to the quakes so they came through well with little damage.  Even the basement pool had no cracks.  We stay for pinot noir and a dozen local oysters.  Back to the hotel for dinner by ourselves.  Interesting meal, starting with boiled seasoned peanuts, very good!  Leaving the south island tomorrow via ferry to the capital, Wellington. It was a good decision to fly Australia and bus through New Zealand.  So glad we’re not on a plane every other day.  By the time we end this 2 month trip we will have been on 16 flights and 8 times on the water (not knowing yet what return to Hawaii will bring.  And miles and miles on buses.