New Zealand
Betsy and Albert spent a week in October on New Zealand's South Island. We rented a car and drove about 1,000 miles through beautiful countryside. Here are some of the places we stopped and some of the things we saw:
We arrived in Christchurch on Monday and drove directly to Kaikoura from there. Luckily for us, the drive was easy, since we needed practice driving on the left side of the road and shifting with our left hands! Kaikoura is on the northeast coast of the South Island, and is famous for its eco-tourism. It's also a beautiful location - the mountains come almost all the way down to the rocky beach. We visited the colony of seals that lives at the end of the beach. The seals seemed pretty used to tourists. Albert waded out to the nearest rock where one was sunning herself, and stood about five feet away from her. At left, Albert stands on the beach.
In addition to the seals, there are many other sorts of marine life near Kaikoura. We got up early on Tuesday to go on a whale watching trip. The dawn trip was cancelled due to rough seas, but fortunately we were able to reschedule for the 8:30 trip. As it was, we were all issued wristbands to prevent seasickness. The ride was rough enough to make us all a bit queasy, but it was worth it to see the half dozen sperm whales we encountered. At right, a whale dives. We also saw a group of dusky dolphins, several seals, and many seabirds. We were glad we saw the dolphins, since the rough water forced us to give up plans to go swimming with the dolphins later in the day.
Tuesday evening, we drove west across the island and spent the night in Greymouth, on the west coast. Wednesday morning, we drove south along the coast, stopping in Hokitiki to visit the jade galleries, and again at the Franz Josef Glacier. Again, we were foiled by the weather - it was too cloudy and rainy to take a small plane or helicopter flight to the top of the glacier. Instead, we hiked about two miles from the car park to the base of the glacier.
We spent Wednesday and Thursday nights in Queenstown, a former gold rush town that now thrives on the tourist industry. The town is absolutely beautiful. It's situated on a lake and surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The town is full of hotels and backpacker's lodgings, cafes and restaurants, and many shops selling wool products and other souvenirs. In the winter, there is skiing in the nearby mountains, and in the summer there are activities ranging from bungy jumping to jet boating to white water rafting. In the picture at right, Betsy stands on the lookout over the town. It was actually snowing lightly when the picture was taken!
The adrenaline producing activity that we chose to participate in was bungy jumping. We jumped off the Kawarau Suspension Bridge - the original commercial bungy site, which has been in operation for 10 years. It was really a neat experience. Below left, Albert prepares to jump. Below right, Betsy jumps.
On Thursday, we drove back to Christchurch. According to our guidebook, Christchurch has a population of around 300,000 and is often said to be "the most English city outside of England." It's a very pretty city, full of gardens, flowers, statues, and fountains. We spent the afternoon wandering around the city, visiting the Anglican cathedral, going punting on the Avon, walking through the botanical gardens and visiting a few shops. In the picture at right, Albert is standing by a statue of Captain Cook. The park was across the street from our hotel, and not too far from the tallest building in town - all of 18 stories.
We got up before dawn on Friday in order to go hot air ballooning. A van picked us up from our hotel at 5:30am, and drove us to a high school, where we helped to set up the balloon. We took off just as the sun was rising over the sea, turning the tops of the mountains rosy pink. The ride was very calm, gentle, and relaxing. We flew at around 1500 ft., which was low enough to exchange hellos with people who were just coming out to get their morning paper. Soon, we were over countryside, and discovered that sheep and horses really don't like hot air balloons. Our landing was fairly gentle, but the basket fell over when Albert and a couple of the other passengers got out to help get the balloon down on the ground. After folding it up and stuffing it in a big bag, we all had a glass of champagne to celebrate our successful flight. Below, the shadow of our balloon on the Canterbury countryside.
We returned to Singapore later that day. It was really a wonderful vacation, and we strongly recommend New Zealand to anyone who's looking for a pleasant holiday.
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