Heading North

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March 24 Lake Tekapo,

Today has been primarily a travel day. We left Dunedin around 8 this morning and arrived here in Lake Tekapo in the late afternoon. We did make one interesting stop on the way here to see the Moeraki Boulders. These are huge spherical boulders sitting on the edge of the ocean. They are created from a combination of sandstone and lichen pressed together over the eons. The way they are scattered along the shore looks like the giants were bowling and just left their balls where they stopped rolling.
The country side through to here is stunning with the mountains and glacier blue rivers running through the landscape. There are a number of dams that create lakes that add to the local colour schemes.
Lake Tekapo itself is equally pretty. We stayed in a cabin next door to the hostel, right along the lake shore. Too bad we only had one night here. The sky around here is also amazingly clear and made star gazing well worth the standing in the cold. (yes, it’s cold here)

March 25,

A long travel day as we headed farther north. Today was to be our visit to Christchurch but because of the earthquake that part of our trip has been cancelled. However, we did travel through the city just long enough to pick up and drop off travelers who needed to be there to catch their flights out of New Zealand. It was a rather sobering visit as we traveled around the circumference of the badly damaged city centre. We saw a great deal of damage to the surrounding area, much of it to buildings made of brick and those with brick chimneys that crashed to the ground. I have to admire the people of Christchurch who have done their best to pick up their lives and keep going. On the surface, the city was business as usual.
Our destination for the day was Kaikoura, another very pretty seaside town. We couldn’t get a room in the hostel here so opted for a motel. Sure makes for a nice change. The owners were very surprised to see the Magic bus stop across the street from them to let us off as the busses ‘never’ stop there. Had a great driver.
So we spent our two days in Kaikoura wandering around and exploring the place. Nothing much to do here, just enjoyed the scenery.

March 27, Back in Wellington.

We have met another couple from BC and have been keeping each other company for these past few days as we travel north. One of our stops today was at a seal colony at Ohau Point. Lots of young ones clambering all over the place, one even tossing around some seaweed, while the adults just flopped in the sun and occasionally scolded an overly rambunctious youngster.
When we finally got off the Inter-Island ferry in Wellington, the city bus only took us part way to our hostel so the four of us shouldered our packs and walked the several kms to the hostel. It is times like this that make me truly appreciate having a good backpack. Returning here makes the trip feel like it is ending.

Mar 28, Rotorua

The next morning had us up bright and early for another long travel day back to Rotorua. Best part of the trip was traveling through the Central Plateau with New Zealand’s only official desert, Rangipo Desert. It is an area surrounded by volcanoes, including the one used to represent Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Ring show. This time I actually got to see it.
Other than that, just a long day on the bus.

March 29, 30 Bay of Plenty

We kept hearing about what a nice place this was so we decided to say good bye to our new friends and hop off the bus here in Tauranga. As soon as we saw the hostel we both felt that maybe we had made a mistake because it is just off the highway, tucked a ways out of town. Fortunately once we entered the building we realized it was actually quite nice. The city itself is just that, another city. After walking around it for a bit we grabbed a city bus over to Mount Maunganui which is famous for its dormant volcano and beaches. Now this was very nice and as we quickly discovered, (after researching some other accommodations) equally expensive. As a result, we have decided to shorten our stay here by one day.
So next morning we rebooked our bus and booked a hostel in Whitianga where we will head tomorrow. After that was all done, we headed back to the beach at Mt. Maunganui. Turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day. We spent it walking around the base of the volcano as far as we could. There had been land slips on the back side so couldn’t go all the way around. That was okay though as we spent most of our time watching the surfers attempt the storm surf that was crashing in. A tropical storm was doing its thing north of the islands somewhere and the surfers were making the most of it. The rest of the time we just lazed on the beach and read our books. Now that is my idea of a great day.

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Photos

Grand Chancellor Hotel
Crist Church one corner has dropped by over a metre. Will be taken down.

Mr Rotaranga??
Better known as Mt. Doom from the opposite side as the earlier view we had.