CHRISTCHURCH

It rained all day today, i had to buy an umbrella to keep the camera dry. First off i walked into the city which took about 20mins and stopped to sit and study my map when a tram pulled up in front of me and the conductor jumped off and said $17 and you can ride the tram for 2 days, hop on hop off, sold, from then on he called me miss NT.
i rode the tram around the loop

Christchurch is full of flowers, it is so pretty.

my first hop off was the Art Gallery because i wanted to see the exhibition by this man which i had read about in the paper.

it was amazing. Life like sculptures, some were huge, a lot of them naked but absolutely fascinating, i loved it.

you were not allowed to take photos with a flash which is ok because i just put my camera onto landscape setting and the flash doesn't come up, but there was a bus load of tourists who didn't know how to turn the flash off on their cameras, no word of a lie i must have adjusted 30 cameras. It started because i helped a lady who was next to me in the line and next thing everyone else was asking me to do there's. an American gentleman asked me how much i charged ! he was serious. So funny.

i went on a wander through the museum and came across this replica of a house based on a real one in Bluff. The couple who lived here, Fred and Myrtle collected Paua shells. Fred used to polish them up and when he had no room in his shed he had a habit of leaving them on the lounge room floor. Myrtle eventually told him to pick them up because she couldn't vacuum properly so he started hanging them on the walls which soon became full. Word got out and people would call in to see all the shells, then bus loads would come. Anyway i watched a movie on them, they were married 72 years ! when they died the family loaned the collection to the museum who built the replica house to put them in. It was so lovely going through this house...did you go through it Clare ? gave me goose bumps.

some of their collection of Paua shells.

i then went on a walk through the Botanic Gardens and even though it was pouring rain it was still so beautiful, the pictures aren't great because I'm holding the brolly in one hand and the camera in the other and the camera is heavy.

below is the Avon river which you can normally take a Punt ride along but because of the rain they were cancelled.

Tomorrow is my last day in New Zealand, did you know the Dutch gave New Zealand it's name ? Sealand, land surrounded by sea. I fly out at 4,30pm and i will be sad to leave. New Zealand is beautiful, extremely clean, the best accommodation i have ever stayed in, well organised, they think of everything, a very easy and relaxing place to drive around and explore and the friendliest people, i would love to come back.

Ciao from lovely Christchurch.

BANKS PENINSULA

I spent a very enjoyable day exploring the Peninsula and a lovely town called Akaroa. It's very French, street names and themes, buildings, all set on the waterfront with lots of art and craft shops and food. I had a lovely lunch Al Fresco of fish and salad with some mushroom and asparagus, really nice.
Of course i spent the day driving up and down mountains, the little car only does 40 on the hills so i had to often move over when i could to let the 50 cars behind me pass.
These were taken in Akaroa

Akaroa from above, i moved over to let the cars behind me go and decided i may as well take photos while i waited for them to pass....it took awhile.

I am starting to think that the woman in the Navman GPS thing i have, is trying to kill me. A few times today she said " turn right in 300 metres " i was driving over a mountain and to my right was a sheer drop to the South Pacific ocean, she tried to get me to turn right a few times. Sometimes it pays to ignore her.

i ended the day on the beach in Christchurch looking at the South Pacific. Weather was perfect today, no jackets required but not hot.

Ciao from Christchurch. Only 4 more sleeps then it's back to reality.

MOUNT COOK TO CHRISTCHURCH

I left the beautiful Mount Cook today and drove to Christchurch. The drive was pretty uneventful. I stopped on Lake Tekapo to eat and read the paper, just look at that sky, it was amazing. The papers here are full of the Brisbane flood...poor buggers.
The entire drive today was so windy, the little car was being pushed across the road and i had to grip the steering wheel, very cold wind. My Navman navigated me right into Christchurch to the motel which is within walking distance of the city centre and the Botanical gardens which will be handy when i hand the car back.
from my room i had this gorgeous sunset, almost looks like it's on fire.

I have rung the kids and they are having a ball in Indonesia, Mia has a head full of tiny plaits and Riley is learning to surf, Mia said she is also really good at bartering ! Tomorrow i explore Banks Peninsula. Ciao from Christchurch

MOUNT COOK, HOOKER VALLEY WALK

My goal to walk 7 trails today was reduced to one because i slept in, and by the time i got going it was nearly 11am...oh well. I drove out to the campground which is the start of the Hooker trail and look at the view from the carpark, stunning.

I am so stylish. 5 mins into the walk i came across the memorial to all the people who have died climbing Mt Cook, there is a lot of them.

This is an idea of the terrain that i had for the walk, not hard going, only a few steep bits but very rocky and gravely, you had to watch the ground and not the scenery or you would trip which i did a lot.

This was the first of 2 swing bridges. I try to time it so that I'm the only one on the bridge because with 2 it really does swing which i don't like.

This was the 2nd swing bridge further up the trail, the path clung to the cliff.

About this point i heard a man behind me say " are we there yet " his kids told him to cut it out, so funny.

We had a board walk for a little of the way but i found this harder to walk on because my boots kept catching on the gap between the planks and i would trip.

this is a hut that the hikers who over night use, there are lots throughout the park

It's right beside a lovely creek.

The path got very narrow at times.....it cant be far now !

and there it was, ice bergs and lots of them, all different sizes.

they were floating on the murky water under a blue sky and it just looked really strange.

some floated close to the bank and we could touch them. they felt like.....ice

the glacier covered in moraine. This is a different one to the one i saw yesterday even though they look similar.

the walk up here was hot in the valley but when the path climbed up we got a lovely cold wind

my boot on a piece of glacier ice.

i ate my sandwich here and lingered for about an hour then noticed that the weather was changing so i headed back. I left at 11am and got back to the car at 3.30pm. My left heel is painful but other than that i had a gorgeous day.

OAMARU TO MOUNT COOK

Today i left Oamaru and drove west

i decided to go to Mount Cook which is on the other side of the Alps from Fox Glacier
I checked in at the motel, that's the village on the left and then went off to do some serious photography
stunning, this is zoom lens view

another zoom view of the snow on the mountain

After reading the pamphlet on the walking trails available i decided that seeing as it was 4pm i would go for a walk to the Tasman Glacier, the book said it was a 40min return journey.

First was an 8 kilometre drive down this dirt road which climbs up the mountain a bit before levelling out in the valley. I was doing 40 along here and on the narrow sharp bends that hug the cliff i was down to 20, the gravel was loose and i found that if i went over 40 the back end of the car started to slide. I must have been the only one having this problem because everyone else flew past me at 100 leaving me covered in dust and unable to see...i was not impressed.

40min round trip, piece of cake, well not really.It started off well but then turned in to mountain goat terrain, the higher i got the windier and colder it got and the gusts actually had me clinging to rock but i plowed on

this was a quarter of the way up. I actually over took some people and i soon learnt to shut my trap when i commented to one " you can do it, it cant get any worse than this " then we rounded a boulder and saw that it got a lot worse and she said, rather sarcastically i thought " what was that you said ? " the last part there was no real path you picked your way vertically up rocks and the wind.....

It's a long way to the top if you wanna

have your photo taken with a glacier.

that black mass in the middle is the glacier, covered in dirt. The surface dirt is called surface moraine and it's about a metre or two thick, under that is the ice which at the point where it meets the water its about 200mt thick and around 600 metres thick further up. Where I'm standing which is quiet high from the waters edge, these pics were taken with the zoom, about 100 years ago the glacier covered the area where i am standing. and this lake didn't exist 20 years ago....it was only small puddles really, global warming ?

this is a chunk of ice that has broken off, there are a few in the lake and they are large

here is an iceberg with 2 inflatable tour boats behind it, gives you an idea of the size, the boats looked like ants when they pulled up beside the iceberg.

it was amazing standing up here and even more so because i made it and my legs never screamed once !

because a helicopter didn't come along and pick me up i had to walk back down. Remember it's a 40 min round trip ? well it took me 30mins just to get up here.

it was worth the climb. I did miss my walking buddy Clare....i had no one to complain too !

Tomorrow i have 7 more walks to do of varying lengths but now it's time for bed. It's just gone dark and it's 10.05pm, i will never get used to this...makes for a long day.