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Photo: Halfmoon Bay, Stewart Island, from our balcony.
I have been negligent, now March, and I'll play catch up.
Down the west coast past the Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers. From the road you can look over the tops of palm trees to see the glaciers. Not something we see at home! Thru the Haast Pass to Wanaka for 3 nights in a nice modern apartment.
Poor weather in Wanaka. Went to "Puzzling World", worth the price of admission just for the "Ames room", that messes w perspective. The pictures are of very poor quality, (how is it the yo-yo w $1000 worth of camera equipment around his neck thinks 40 feet of pavement is better included in a photo than the soaring church spires behind his subjects?) but the effect is absolutely staggering. Hope you can make it out . Being a rainy day in an outdoor activity town, the place was jammed, taking away some of the magic. Fun way to spend some time, though. Skipped the sizable outdoor maze d/t rain.
Later, shopping for dinner, we felt the 'quake that rocked Christchurch. The shelves shook and stuff fell off, but we had no idea what had happened until later in the afternoon. After that we had several rainy days, with little else to do but watch the constant coverage of the quake. Heart breaking! The people of Christchurch have, of course, lost so, so much, but what you might not have seen is that many tourists were out of their hotels mid-day when it happened, and not allowed to return to their hotels for belongings or even passports. They camped in the park and were given temporary IDs by the Red Cross. Refugees. The whole city has had to camp for a week and many continue without power, water and sewage at this time. The aftershocks continue. I don't know how they are coping, frankly. Many have just packed up and left their homes. Gone to stay w family or friends until they figure out their next move.
Not a whole heckuva lot to report. We go for a walk or a hike most days, weather permitting. From Wanaka to Queenstown, then on to Invercargill. Rented bikes there and saw the sun for the first time in a while. Had a smooth ferry ride over to Stewart Island, a notoriously rough stretch of water. The island is the same size as Singapore, w a population of 320 souls. Had a great hike around to some of the many bays in the afternoon, and joined in a the Sunday night pub quiz at the only bar/restaurant in town. We teamed up w a couple from Auckland. They have a friend that had been to Calgary, and he described it as "two day old toast"; cold, dry and brown. Since we really couldn't disagree, we adopted that as our team name. We tied in a respectable 2nd place. Would have won if anyone of us had stood up for what we knew to be right, instead of caving to the group. Most importantly, we had a great time, in large part due to the gal who led the quiz. A vocabulary that would make a sailor blush, she'd stride over and duct-tape the mouth (with a straw for drinking) of anyone calling out answers. Tons of fun! The town's sidewalks tightly rolled by 21:30.
More walking the following day, even though this is well south, fuchsia, torch lily and crocosmia grow wild along the roadsides. The vegetation still very tropical looking, even if the day's high was just 13. Flew back to the mainland in the afternoon.
North up the east coast, past Dunedin to the famous Moeraki boulders, and a night in Oamaru. That's a small town w more than it's share of stately buildings, having enjoyed a heyday of a goldrush. Nearby, we visited Totara estate. Here in the 1880's, men of tremendous vision figured out how to refrigerate a sailing vessel to ship surplus mutton from NZ's wool industry for a 3 month journey to a starving, newly industrialized England. Set the course for this nation, really.
Back a wee bit south to Dunedin now. Great town. NZ's oldest university, (beautiful campus, now frosh week), a grand cathedral and many other lovely buildings.
Some stuff we've seen/done here: drove down the Otago Peninsula to Larnach Castle (worth the trip), walked the Botanic gardens (not a day goes by here, AF, that I don't get my nose stuck into gorgeous roses!) and climbed Baldwin Street, the world's steepest street according to Guinness. I may have climbed steeper in the hill towns of Greece and Italy, but none so long! We also explored one of the cities cemeteries, and w the style of and names on the headstones, along w the dark skies, we might well have been in Edinburgh. We may yet visit the Cadbury factory or the Speights brewery if it rains tomorrow. Or maybe the museum. Lots to do here.
Off to Auckland Monday, and home in a month!
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