Today was a rather short one, in comparison to most of our other days here, with only two significant stops along the way. We left Ashburton and continued north eventually turning off Highway 1 onto a side road that took us through the town of Lincoln and eventually up the south rim of the extinct volcano that is now home to Lyttelton Harbour, down into the basin that was the volcanic caldera and then up and through the north-west rim, through a traffic tunnel into Christchurch. While we could have taken the drive further east on Banks Peninsula to Akaroa, another extinct volcano, we both have pretty much had our fill of driving up and down twisting and narrow roads. Especially since it is I who wanted to see rocks rather than needing to focus my full attention on the road ahead! While the road taken did have its share of twists and turns I still saw enough to appreciate that it was likely the product of explosive volcanism as the central crater (caldera) is rather large, although nowhere on the same scale as Lake Taupo, on the North island, probably the largest volcanic explosion in recorded history.
Once we got to Christchurch we drove downtown and looked around a bit but didn’t linger too long. We were surprised at how little visible damage there is considering that it was close to the epi-centre of a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on the Richter scale in early September, and numerous aftershocks since. The buildings where we did see damage were all pretty old Victorian style buildings.
We then returned to Highway 1 and continued our drive north. Except for a stop to take a picture of the low lying clouds hugging the local hills (the Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa - "land of the long white cloud") and a stop for lunch we drove right through to Kaikoura, the whale watching capital of New Zealand, or so they claim. Apparently sperm whales frequent the area. While we watched for a while no whales did we see. But we took a drive to see the local Fur Seal colony and there we were not disappointed! We were able to get up quite close to the seals as they were basking on the rocks. In fact I almost walked into one while walking along examining the rocks and the sea creatures exposed by the low tide! And I took a short video showing two seals as they went back to the water, too tired of all the attention from the paparazzi (including us).
Day 15
As we were only about an hour and an half from Picton we decided to take it easy today. We drove to Blenheim and just wandered around downtown for a while. For the first hour or so out of Kaikoura we had light rain so that put a damper on the sight-seeing along the way too. While in Blenheim we went to the local i-Site (tourist information bureau) and browsed the brochures. There Janice found one for a place just outside of town with a quilt store so we took a drive there.
At Vine Village, besides the quilt store they also had stores where one can buy olive oil, wine, fudge as well as clothing made from wool and opossum fur which is very soft and warm (the Australian Opossum that was introduced to the islands many years ago and are now a real nuisance- we saw many dead possums on the roads as it is considered a “civic duty” to run them over whenever you have the chance!). The quilt store has a lot of New Zealand themed fabrics and even had a quilt featuring many of them on display. Motif’s included kiwi’s, saddle-back birds (another endemic species) as well as Kiwi fruit. Janice bought a few fat quarters for her collection.
I must say that while I have enjoyed our time here I am getting rather tired of the driving. It is not that the twisting roads without any discernable shoulders are a problem. It is just that too often, once we entered a twisted section, somebody would end up right on our tail even though I felt we were still going at a reasonable pace considering the conditions. It is this prevalence of tail-gaters in hazardous areas that ultimately resulted in our accident!
Day 16
The place we stayed at is pretty much the same as a B&B in that we had a bedroom, with ensuite bathroom, and we got a continental breakfast in the morning. That gave us a chance to chat with the proprietor, BJ, a Scot originally from Edinburgh. He doesn’t own the place but, along with his wife operates the place for a couple from Christchurch but is hoping he can lease the place and take over operation and run it how he sees fit.
After breakfast we drove over to the Omega Rental Car depot to arrange to drop off the car and catch the ferry. In my haste I forgot to take a photo of the AS Echo where we had supper last night. Instead I took a picture of Picton Harbour from the ferry terminal. A very nice community.
We debarked from the ship at 1:15 pm and were met by Peter, from the Wellington office of the car rental company. We now have our fourth car of the trip. Again it is a Nissan Sunny but somewhat newer than all of the others (a 2001 model) and is Silver in colour. Unlike the previous car we had, which was pretty gut less this one has some spunk! As neither of us had any desire to go downtown we just headed north away from Wellington. In doing so we discussed what route to follow and opted to take Highway 1 north to Bulls and then continue on Highway 3 to the Northwest with the ultimate objective of seeing, at least from a distance, Mount Taranaki, a large extinct volcano.
Along the way we stopped briefly in Foxton to look at their operating Dutch Wind Mill. They even grind flour that you can then be purchased! Very impressive!
We made it as far as Wanganui where we found a motel to hole up for the night. Rather than eating out we bought a roasted chicken, microwave rice and salad from a local grocery store and had supper in our room. And that reminds me. It is common practice here to be provided by the motel operators with a 300 ml container of milk on checking in! Plus the standard room is a “studio” which at minimum has a fridge, microwave and a basic set of dishes but usually also includes a hot plate stove and sink. Obviously it is New Zealand practice to eat in the motel room, and based on the restaurant prices we have experienced I am not surprised! Anyway, enough for today!
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