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After a good nights sleep we started on the long journey toward Alexandra, land of the plains. We started at dawn and made a few stops along the way. Stop number one would prove to be the place to set the tone of the next two days. 20kms off of our chosen route boasted wonderful scenery and New Zealand's answer to Niagara Falls. When we arrived it was clear that the gentleman who named the site had a very wicked sense of humour as the 'falls' turned out to be a small stream that flowed slowly over a tiny rock! It suffices to say we didn't stay too long. Stop number two didn't do a lot to lift our spirits. We arrived at the 'petrified forest,' an ancient forest that had been petrified by volcanic lava thousands of years before, expecting to see 'enchanting' sights just as our travel guide had promised. Describing the scene is a simple task - driftwood on a beach. That's it! Again we left almost as soon as we got there, Dan cursing the Lonely Planet. Stop number three had a lot to make up for. Paptowai Falls, luckily, didn't disappoint. A series of crystal clear watefalls buried deep in the forest these were, in fact, 'wonderful' and 'enchanting.' Having a little more time than we had anticipated we took a walk through the trees and had lunch at the foot of the falls. After dragging ourselves away from Papatowai we began the long drive along highway 1 towards Alexandra. Alexandra itself is not a place to write home about, a small town consisting of wooden shacks and factories with a sombre grey tone, but the drive there was absolutely stunning. We passed huge mountain ranges at the end of vast green plains home to astonishingly blue lakes. So many different sights in one picture frame. After a few hours we drove through Alexandra and onwards to our campsite, just north of the town, before heading to Omarau the next morning.
The drive this day presented us with a horrid feeling of deja vu and again we passed a few tourist sites that Daniel has asked me to describe here as "overated s**t!" Nevertheless, Omarau itself was worth the hassle and disappointment. Omarau is a tiny seaside town along the east coast of the South Island and it's architecture is completely unique in New Zealand. Every building is Victorian with a touch of history attached, be it an old sigh, door or cart outside. It was almost like stepping back in time and this gave the town a very sweet and homely feel. We had, however, come to Omarau for a spacific reason. Each night hundreds of blue penguins invade the coast of Omarau to nest for the night and feed their young, so we spent the next two evenings penguin spotting from the pier. We were even lucky enough to spot two yellow-eyed penguins on the cliffs where we perched one evening as the sun came down. The yellow-eyed penguin, it is said, is rarer than the infamous Kiwi bird.
Unfortunately, it dawned on us that our time in New Zealand was running out and we left Omarau after 3 days even though neither of us wanted to. It was a long drive to Christchurch, our next and final stop, and we didn't have a lot of time or opportunities to stop often. We drove north to Geraldine another town like Alexandra and through a pretty little town called Ranfurley where every building is Art Deco due to being built entirely in the 1930's. In Ranfurley, there is a tall building known as O'Malleys, an irish pub and restaurant. In the 1930's a man from New Zealand was travelling in Ireland and fell head over heels in love with the pub, bought the building outright and had it shipped to Ranfurley where it is still run by his grandaughter today. We drove most of the night, only stopping to get a few hours rest at a picnic site before we arrived in Christchurch by crossing New Zealand's longest bridge.
Thought of the Day: Do NOT play pictionary with the Maori.
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