Sunday, February 14 (Happy Valentine’s Day) turned out to be
another big travel day. We went by bus from our beautiful resort hotel in
Punakaiki to Christchurch – from the semitropical west coast of the South
Island of New Zealand to the semi arid east coast – from the Tasmin Sea to the
Pacific Ocean.
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| Arthur's Pass NZ |
Along the way we saw much of the same scenery as before – pine forests including Monterrey pine and Norfolk pine;
glacial rivers and clear trout filled rivers and lakes; small towns with old
and new houses; abandoned coal mines (loss of jobs) and several monuments to
miners lost in mining disasters; grass covered plains with cattle (beef and
dairy), sheep, deer and even a few llamas; beautiful wild flowers (including
tons of Lily of the Nile); many one lane bridges; at least one car accident
because foreign drivers forget to drive on the left and crash into the locals;
windy mountain roads; and roundabouts at most intersections.
We made one stop at Toby Hill Sheep Station. It was so much
fun to see the sheepherder work his dog and round up a few sheep and hold them
at bay. Those sheep tried hard to escape, but Pete was in control! Then we had
a sheep shearing demonstration and the look on the sheep’s face was priceless
(oh, no, not again!).
In Christchurch we had a quick tour of the Antarctic Museum
and saw some darling blue penguins. Christchurch had two terrible earthquakes
about 5 years ago which destroyed much of the town. Today they had another 5+
one and most of the penguins were hiding in their nesting boxes. I found their sensitivity rather amazing.
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| Can you see the one brave penguin? |
In the late afternoon we boarded a plane and took the one hour flight to
Wellington where we will spend our last three days in New Zealand.
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