Last day in New Zealand

Kea, the mountain parrot

We spent a delightful day in Christchurch. It started at the New Zealand Air Force Museum. Since the NZ air force spent most of its time as part of Great Britain's RAF, this wasn't very exciting. A collection of mostly World War II planes, but they did have a Sopwith Camel (Snoopy's plane) from World War I. Next was the Antarctic center. Christchurch is the starting point for the New Zealand, American, and Italian expeditions to the Antarctic. We started with a disappointing simulation of a summer storm - 8 degrees Celsius and 45 km winds, so the windchill was -18 degrees Celsius, pretty sissy. Then we went on a fun ride on a Hagglund, the tracked vehicles used in the Antarctic. We climbed 40 degree hills and crossed water 3 meters deep. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to see all the exhibits, but what I was was interesting. The best parts were a colony of little blue penguins and the 17 minute movie of the highest, coldest, driest continent. The Willowbank Wildlife Reserve was the highlight of the day, a close-up view of both endemic and introduced species from the long-finned eels, which dominate the rivers to the geese, Pukeko, and ducks in the air. The hits were the Kea parrots and finally seeing a Kiwi with their long beaks (in the dark). We ended the day with a trolley ride around the center of town and beer at the Art Centre, basking in the sun.

Feeding the long finned eels

So how should I sum up this trip? What a lot of variety in a small country, though we did travel 2175 miles. Alpine snow, to glacier rivers, to thermal features, to prairies and deserts. The highlights were the helicopter flight around Mt. Cook, the water falls of Milford Sound and the glow worms in Waitoma caves. Another highlight was Paul Brown, our bus driver, who is Maori. He had many Maori stories to tell us, translated all the place names, shared the home towns of the rugby players for the All Blacks, the national team and sang us several songs. We've never had such an interesting bus driver.

Mt. Cook to Christchurch

Sunrise on Mt. Cook

The morning sunrise was spectacular - clear blue skies as the sun hit the east face of Mt. Cook, then Mt. Sefton, and slowly lit up the glaciers below Mt. Sefton. We left Mt. Cook's Hermitage lodge and began descending from the high country. Lake Tekapo provided a coffee stop as well as a pretty stone church, named the Church of the Good Shepard on the Lake. This church is shared by 3 congregations. As we descended into rich farm land around Christchurch, the food basket of New Zealand, we again passed lots of sheep farms, the growing dairy farms and a few deer farms. All very typical of this countryside.

Church of the Good Shepard of the Lake

We reached Christchurch about 4 PM and many set out for souvenir shopping since most of the group leaves tomorrow. The girls have a 7 AM flight to Sydney and then home.

Mt Cook (Aoraki)

Moeraki boulders

Today is the start of Fall in the Southern Alps. We traveled about 1 1/2 hours to stop at the Moeraki boulders. These boulders started as calcite crystals int he ancient mud and grew over time. As the Pacific Ocean erodes the shoreline they become exposed to the surface. Next stop was the town of Oamara, where the old town is filled with limestone building.

As we left the ocean we started following the Waitaki river which has hydroelectric dams built all along it. These dams supply electricity to the entire country. In fact, the joke is that the North island would float away if it wasn't for the power cables providing electricity to the North island from the South island. At last we saw Mt. Cook or Aoiraki, the cloud piercer, 12394 feet high. Our hotel room has a beautiful view of Mt. Cook and Mt. Sefton.

Aoraki, the cloud piercer

Laura and I decide to hike up the Hooker valley. We pass a memorial to the 69 climbers who have died here. We travel next to a lake filled with glacier milk, cross 2 one lane suspension bridges until finally we get a closer view of Mt. Cook, but it's covered by clouds. We still had a great 3 hour hike through bogs, desert, scree, and scrambling up rocks.

Dunnedin

New Zealand Fur Seal

We spent the morning traveling to Dunnedin. The countryside changing from mountains to rolling plains with cattle, sheep, and deer farms scattered throughout. On arrival, we took a trip down the Otago peninsula to see the wildlife. We had a choice of penguins, albatross, or seals and penguins. We chose the latter, Nature's Wonders, and on arrival got into an 8 wheeled ATV with a driver. It was like a Disney ride as we went through mud holes, water holes, and climbed steep hills. We had a beautiful view of the peninsula and harbor area from 160 m up. Then we descended to sea level to see a colony of New Zealand fur seals. There were quite a few babies and well as adults. In the ocean were huge belts of kelp, which grow at a rate of 1 meter/day. We then traveled to a different area to see penguins. Sheltered under a rock we saw a couple of little blue penguins, the smallest penguin. Fifteen percent of the world's population of yellow-eyed penguins live on this peninsula. At one point they were down to 900 penguins, but today there are about 1200. They were very difficult to spot until finally one came out of the ocean in the distance and another turned around so we could see its white belly in the bushes, a fun experience.

Little Blue Penguins (at Antarctic center)

Milford Sound

Mitre Peak, Milford Sound

We're on our way to Milford Sound and stop for an early lunch at Te Annu next to the largest lake on the South island. It begins to rain as we enter into Eglington valley with the peaks hidden in the clouds. We make a brief stop at Mirror Lakes, which are left over after the river shifted its course. As we go further the water being to flow in places like Falls Creek and a beautiful carved canyon, the Chasm. We're beginning to see more and more water falls in the nearby cliffs and after we go through the 1.2 km. tunnel carved out in the 1930's, they're everywhere, a precursor of the sound. We begin our 2 hour cruise through the sound. There is Mitre peak, the most famous landmark of Milford sound hidden in the clouds. As we cruise the sound, there are waterfalls everywhere, only two of which are permanent - Lady Bowen Falls (161 m) and Sterling Falls (155 m). The rest of the waterfalls only appear when it rains, and they fall from great heights. The sun shines more and more as we make our way to the Tasman sea. The sound, actually a fjord, isn't actually very long. But it is easy to see why this is a World Heritage Site. On our return, they get us soaked going under Sterling Falls.

Unfortunately, our return bus trip is tragic. Margarete has an asthma attack and can't breathe. We stop the bus. Peggy Connor begins to help her. Another bus stops and 2 other nurses begin to help. A helicopter pilot stops by in his car, we're in an area with no phone communication, but he has a radio and asks for an ambulance. The nurses begin CPR. At first Margarete begins to breathe again, but a few minutes later, they're giving CPR again. About 75 minutes later a medical helicopter manages to land on our narrow road and an ambulance arrives. But it's to no avail, she has died on the side of the road.

Queenstown

Shotover River

Queenstown is where Beth spent most of her weekends when she student taught in New Zealand. It's a tourist town on Lake Wakatipu surrounded by mountains. Here you can do anything that involves the outdoors: jet boat, bungee jump, ski, kayak, etc. We chose a four wheel drive trip on a shelf road down skippers canyon. This was a gold mining area and the canyon is filled with tailings from the water sluices that used to operate here in the 1860's. The road follows the Shotover river for about half its length. It has many beautiful views of the river and other rock formations like the castle and the lighthouse. We stopped at a restored school house and ranch for tea and then return to town. Meanwhile, the others took the Lord of the Rings scenery tour, which covers some of the nearby locations used in the movies.

Lighthouse Rock

In the afternoon, we do laundry, shopping, and a walk through the gardens. Dinner was at a nearby Irish pub, where we had a great stone grilled steak, superb! It was good to have a relatively quiet day after many single nights in different locations.

To Queenstown

Knight's Point

Today we traveled the rain forests of the West Coast which get 200-300 inches of rain, but we got to see it in the sunshine. Most of the forest is covered in pine trees and ferns, all of them very tall. You feel that the dinosaurs should be lurking nearby. We stopped numerous times for the sights: Fox Glacier, Knights Point on the Tasman sea, Timber Creek Falls, and Lake Hawea. Our big stop was a jet boat ride up the Haast river with view of the 2000 foot Harris Falls and Joe Falls. We had fun jetting up the shallow river and doing a few 360's. While the river was shallow today, it only takes a few days of rain to turn it into a torrent from shore to shore.

We arrived in beautiful Queenstown at about 4:30. Our Novatel hotel is right along the water front. In the evening, we took the gondola up the mountain side for gorgeous views of the lake and its surrounding mountains. The buffet up there was quite delicious. We ended the day, celebrating St. Patrick's day at a local pub.

Queenstown from the gondula