Stopping at Lake Tekapo along route to see the famous tiny church perched on a rock face in front of the Southern Alps, we continued to our final destination in New Zealand...Christchurch.
With street names like Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford and St.Albans, a cathedral, pretty flower beds that give you intense hayfever and punting on the River Avon (very relaxing darhling), Christchurch is more English than England. If you can ignore the Japanese owned New Zealand souvenir shops on every corner that is. Our first day went up to a balmy 26degrees and we saw New Zealand in a different light. Well, sunlight actually. Bit of a shock to the system all round and not least because Beth's legs have not been waxed for 3 months, let alone seen the sun.
Six days in Christchurch (or ChCh as the locals call it) loomed in front of us and with the beauty of hindsight we wondered why we had not spent longer at Queenstown. Oh yes, we'd run out of money. So, armed with a self walk book we spent several days exploring what turned out to be a really fascinating city. We also indulged in all the activities that Christchurch is famous for; the
gondola, punting, botanical gardens and the fascinating
International Antarctic Centre. The centre was a fun insight into one of the least explored wildernesses left on earth. Beth was particularly interested in the political influences that cloud the region (the book 'Pink Ice' is a hot tip for a 30th Birthday present ;) ) whilst Steve was interested in becoming the first person to skydive over the region. It really does seem that in our case, opposites attracted! As well as riding the amphibious Hagglund vehicle which is actually used in the Antarctic and can traverse 6ft gaps, we also experienced a 'mild' Antarctic storm with a wind chill of -18degrees. Huddling into our fleeces, our sympathies were very firmly with the poor lady in a skirt.
We also visited
Akaroa, a romantic French settlement that is home to 300 residents and swells to a whopping 3000 in peak season which is no wonder as it is a gorgeous village. We decided our last big blow-out in New Zealand would be the highly recommended
Black Cat cruise around the harbour and as winners of the prestigious New Zealand 'supreme tourism award' for 2003/4, we knew it would be good. It was, we had a lovely cruise and saw some amazing rock formations including Scenery Nook which is shaded with reds and purples, oranges and yellows. Our main incentive for the cruise however was to see the Hectors dolphins which had already eluded us at Porpoise Bay in the Catlins and, as you can only see in New Zealand, was our last opportunity. Unfortunately they eluded us again and the Captain commented that it was the first time in over a year that they had not seen the Hectors Dolphins on one of their daily cruises. The words 'salt' and 'wounds' spring to mind. The captain did spot one in the distance and told us that as the dolphins can only stay under water for a maximum of 2 minutes, to look for it's break to the surface again. Well, this little Hectors Dolphin was clearly going for the free-diving world record because it was a no show back to the surface. D'oh. We did see a little seal in the water playing with a fish though so that was some compensation.
After a very relaxing week, we left New Zealand for Aus in a haze of hayfever. Well, that's our excuse for streaming eyes anyway. Nothing to do with the fact we were sad at leaving the heart-wrenchingly beautiful New Zealand.
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