Impressions

Living in the center has lots of advantages, one of them – it saves time. We managed to change money, to send a forgotten key and to visit the Arts center as well as the Cantebury museum and after that also go to Akaroa, did some walking and shopping there and came back for dinner to the city again. Here are some morning pics of Christchurch:

It was windy as yesterday, some showers, very cold, around 7C. No dreams of moving to New Zealand .

But luckily the museum was very good, and people here in the city are wonderful. I can’t believe they can be so attentive, so sincere and nice to all those tourists around them…The museum is about lots of things, Antarctic including. There were meteorites from Antarctica, all types of rocks they fond there and also the fossils of plants and animals that used to live in this cold continent. there were dinosaur bones, all the birds that live in New Zealand, and also lots of art artifacts of different countries, like Japan, Tibet, India, Egypt, etc…A little old Christchuch is made there to show things were years ago. So my head started turning around…

And there lived that odd couple, who collected pau shells and covered their room walls with them. their room is reconstrocted in teh museum thought the people are gone for several years. tehy even show a movie about those happy people:

Here are the pics from the windy and steep road to Akaroa, which would be unbelievably beautiful on a good day, but today we had to enjoy it through the window mostly…It had been a big volcano long ago and now the crater is filled with the sea waterm it is a harbor and rugged coasts, but I am quoting what one board said: God knows what is still going on underneath…

There in  Akaroa even  Andrei agreed to spend some time in shops and bought a hat for himself, so cold and windy it was outside…

Here is a stop on the way back, called Birdling Flats – very strange…So many round polished stones, piles, heaps, hills of them…And some serious men picking something in the puddles where the sea water sinks in. The waves were beating the shore to such extent that they felt like tsunami, we didn’t date to come to the shore closer. I picked some so called touch stones that they sell everywhere with ornaments engraved.

And we came back, started to search for food. Interesting thing – no big food stores around, or they are hidden somewhere… But lots of restaurants,  only which to choose? There was a very pleasant girl standing by a small church-restaurant, called Octagon. The girl was with a black hat and well fit black coat  -looked impressive. And she was so pleasantly inviting to come and enjoy their meals with jazz music, that we were delighted to spend our evening there. The food was so tasty! They manage to get so  much taste from  portabella mushrooms, that I think they definitely know some trick…An older man was playing piano, so light music, then a girl joined him to sing some french and English jazzy songs. Life can’t be better …

The night by Lake Pukaki was very very windy. i was afraid our cottage will fly out into the skies…After the night Mt. Cook was hidden behind cloud curtain, so we never saw it again. Lake Pukaki as well as lake Tekapo were so windy, that it was no fun taking pictures or even getting our from the car.

They connect their lakes with canals in order to manage the hydro power as good as possible:

We went to the historical tiny active church of Good Shepard on the bank of  Tekapo, but only from the sense of responsibility…

There was a statue of a dog, but in this wind we couldn’t figure out what the story was…

Then we stopped for lunch in Geraldine, which was hidden from winds by some landscape peculiarity, it is one of those nice small towns with everything a tourist can need. With some historical houses. I liked this church for its name:

They sure have a sense of humor, those kiwis…

And then we took a scenic drive instead of a shorter drive to Christchurch:

It was very green landscape with hills and some mountains, but the Riana River gorge was spectacular:

And here we are, in Christchurch, in the first place we found to stay in the center of the city. It was warm and windy when we started our walk to the church, but immediately the winds changed to Antarctic winds and it got so cold, that we had to run back home to pick more clothes. I never felt so cold in this trip until now. Seems autumn is coming to this island…Leaves are flying everywhere, trees are turning. Here are some pics from the center, where they are having a flower festival with the most beautiful flower arrangements in their Cathedral, where the service was going on and it was not permitted to take pics. But I noticed – they arrange flowers with shells!

Entrance to the church:

Our room is very nice, with a big window to a flower garden full of blooms, and another art deco stained glass window…Here are views from our window:

As most of significant mountains the tallest (3754m) one also has two names – one given by colonizers and the other – given by Maori. We heard such good impressions about it and wanted to see it. But were very hesitant because of the weather. But for joy for joy – we left showers on the coast and again entered the deep inland. Some pics before we left Oamaru. What a community house this town has! I bet they have good events, too:

Their Whiskey plant. The second floor, all smelling good whiskey, is prepared for locals to have their celebrations, weddings:

The third floor is an art gallery. The ground floor is a whiskey shop, a cosy bar. The street by the plant isusually full with penguins, but only at night. They have their holes to the cellars of this plant and other houses and enjoy their social life there:

Then there was this beautiful drive and a short stop in Kurow. I couldn’t pass this building without taking its pic:

Another stop was caused by poor sheep  -they were flooding the road and running with their tongues sticking, maybe scared or excited…

Some herding dogs were doing their job, others waiting for their turn in the owner’s car:

Some Maori rock art by the road:

Sorry, but the art itself wasn’t worth the stop. How come they are making such fancy carvings and other things now and earlier and in the 19th maybe their kids made some pencil type very primitive drawings on those walls and nowadays government made all those paths and walls and gates to view them. I imagine someone in the US doing such paths and walks by some graffiti paintings… . This  rock itself was worth taking a pic.

We stopped at a place called Pukaki Downs as recommended by one bicycler Brit as a good place to sleep. A wonderful woman met us super friendly and even gave us a baggy of cookies for she was sorry to say – they were not in this business any more.

And then at last – we saw Mt.Aoraki! Expect to see it a lot in our pics!

We found another place to sleep before we reached the last stop by the mountains, but it is like a motel and therefore – no character. But we have Aoraki views!

And then we went on a hike for 3.5 hours fast walk towards Hookers Glacier, through Hookers Valley (I am not joking – it is really Hookers…).

On the way we had to cross the big river twice on hanging bridges:

At the end we reached the lake that is formed from the melting Glacier. With iceberg pieces floating in the water:

My hands started freezing there…The glacier itself looked very dirty:

And that is it, we came back tired, as it was expected. A monument for those who perished in those areas, with Mt. Cook clear from clouds on top!

Morning in Wanaka:

We looked into the sky in the morning  – it was windy and some clouds, but the forecast wasn’t good, so after reasoning: the clouds usually stay on the Western part of the island, lets go to the Eastern, we changed our plans and drove towards the sea on the east.But before leaving Wanaka  -we played a little in the Puzzle World:

The drive East was beautiful:

Stopped at a little town named Ranfurly for lunch. Everything there in that town was art Deco:

Their museum was full of Art Deco things , even swim suits, not speaking about furniture and dishes. But also their shops were full of that stuff which is funny to me…Sorry, I have no feelings for that epoch:

And then we got some heavy rain…But managed to reach the shore and one of its attractions – Moreaki Bolders:

Those boulders are known for their mysteriously round shape. Some of them are cracked, revealing their colorfully almost amber like insides.

And then we reached Oamaru. the looks of the town were very unexpected – they were about some previous glory – very fundamental buildings in the center, like banks, opera, or community center:

The town is known as a Blue penguin colony – yes, they live in the town at night, and swim in the seas during the day. In fact they live in the most exotic parts of the town in the cellars, especially under the Whisky plant . You can see them if you go out late at night, by late I mean around 10pm, which we did  – in a terrible rain and wind, wasn’t much fun, but we had no choice. Those little guys come out from the waves, climb the stones of the wharf and walk in the streets, they are so cute:

This is the street they like to wander:

Another way of seeing them is by paying $20 and going into their viewing center, sitting on the chairs built around the beach and watching the process of them coming from the waters under the roof.

One wharf in town is literally occupied by shags:

The search fro a lodge was also very interesting, for it took us three stops to find availability. One of the choices;

But finally – the Shaggers was the place we liked a lot – a Latvian woman met us wearing two strands of amber beads! What a pleasant shock to me! Her mom left them to her. She was extremel;y pleasant and helpful, to the extreme. We had good internet there and a pleasant atmosphere-  she tried to get her guests to ineract, and we felt like a big family trhere, went to see penguins together, etc. Just there was not enough time…A Hungarian gal from Colorado was just going home from three months work as a hairdresser in Antarctica! So it was exciting to see her pics and listen to stories.It is a pity I didn’t take their pics myself, was too excited…I got Ildico’s pics of a penguin she took here – so to be fair – I have to say that the brighter picof the two is hers. This is how Shaggers looks like:

In the morning I went to say good bye to the Tasman Sea, it was rough!

Then we drove to the center and I took the very center of Hokitika:

And its Catholic church, sticking out for the very small and low building town of 3000 pop.:

Hokitika beach has its specifics:

I wish I had such a resource for doing crafts, garden furniture, etc…

And off South towards the Glaciers. it wasn’t raining all the time, but the clouds were so low, that we couldn’t admire the mountains on our left side…those Glaciers are the only ones on our Planet so close to rain forest, solow and so close to the sea… So we reached Franz Joseph Glasier, walked towards it until it is permitted:

Had to cross a river, very refreshing water, wasn’t too cold at all:

And enjoying the Glasier:

Then half an hour drive – and we are by the Fox Glacier. The highest New Zealand mountain Mt. Cook is behind thisg lacier, in the same mountain range, but how could we ever dream of seeing it…:

Pieces of ice were floating far away from their source…And the mountains around were so steep:

The water in the pools from glasiers has this perfect color:

Then by Haast we saw some coastline, similar to what we had seen before:

And then the rain got very strong, so we just drove East, through the mountains by a wide Haast river, through a pass and with waterfalls surrounding us. Until we reached Wanaka lake, the skies starting to clear up:

And finally lake  Hawea. The views here became fantastic, but after driving 430 km today, we wanted to finalize it by finding a place to stay and writing the Blog :

We were rewarded again  – found a room with this view towards Lake Wanaka in a mountain resort Wanaka. Everything is fine, ate and will rest, but the internet is very very weak…I can’t manage to post my Blog today, sorry.

But this is the view from our room window: