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Christchurch
The disaster was awful. Week 2
We spent the morning looking at the earthquake damage in Christchurch and the city felt eerie as it was so deserted. There was lots of damage; buildings collapsed and if they weren’t already down they were being demolished as they were no longer safe, we both felt sad to see it and so didn’t spend long there. Then it was time to collect Benn and Ange from the airport and we were feeling a bit strange for seeing people for the first time and letting them in our bubble! It was great to see them and we slipped straight back into normality; abusing each other etc! We had a pretty chilled night a few drinks and games of cards because Benn and Ange were knackered after their mammoth flight, although we did manage a few jagermeisters to toast their arrival.
Reasonably refreshed (we had a disturbed night sleep as we had unknowingly parked next to a train line) the next day we made our way to Mount Cook; New Zealand’s highest mountain. We stopped for a lovely walk and saw Tasman Glacier which was lovely and then camped in a council run campsite in the most beautiful
Christchurch
Most of the city centre was in the process of being demolished setting. It was funny watching Benn and Dim trying to fill the van with water with our tiny hose and a borrowed one; Benn getting piss wet through. We had another chilled one, ready for the bigger walk to see Mount Cook in the morning.
The walk to Mount Cook was beautiful and we saw another glacier (or part of the same one we had already seen?) it was ace to see the icebergs floating from it and all the snow topped mountains around. In the afternoon we made our way to Lake Tekapo picking up Canadian and English hitch-hikers along the way.
We were all thinking of Jell as it is a year since he died; Dim was going to do a sky dive as a way of remembering his beautiful Dad, but instead we booked to go to the Mount John Observatory to go on a stargazing tour; he felt this was a better way to remember him, as they used to look at the stars together. It was fantastic we were apparently lucky as there hadn’t been many clear nights in May so we already felt that Jell was looking down on us. We saw
loads; the moon close up, Saturn which was the highlight as you could see the ring and everything, another galaxy and stars that had already burnt out but are still visible on earth! It was so cold but was given Antartic style coats and hot chocolates. The next day was Jell’s anniversary and a thoughtful day for us all; we still find it hard to believe he has gone and that it has been a whole year; we spent the day driving through beautiful scenery and arrived at a lovely quaint town. After having a look around this old fashioned town we parked up and walked to the pub so we could toast Jell; we found a lovely Victorian pub; the landlord even dressed the part and we had a few pints. We ended up chatting to the locals and were given some fish from a fisherman; the landlord offered to cook it up with some chips for us, all for a fiver for the four of us; GREAT! A nice end to a difficult day.
We woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the harbour and were on our way again; 1st stop Dunedin to get a few
bits on the van fixed and after this we headed to a lakeside campsite; the first power site we had since being on the road and we made the most of it. Fully recharged; washing done and properly showered we were off again. We stopped in a place called Gore; I needed to get in touch with home to see what was going on with my Dad and his funeral; I was feeling unsettled and confused him still not being buried, but still no news.
We decided to do a bit of night driving and make our way to Te Anau the base town to visit Milford Sound; we found a camping spot behind shops and it rained all night long – welcome back to the West Coast!
Me and Dim woke early and went for a walk; we soon found a lovely lake and sat for a while until it became light – really beautiful setting that we hadn’t seen arriving at night. After breakfast by the lakeside, we made our way down Milford Road, 1st stop Key Summit car park to do a walk. The walk through beautiful, lush forest was ace and I loved to
Ready to go
got the van and we're set... see all the moss everywhere, we passed several waterfalls; the cloud however, was really low lying and so when we reached the summit after a good old climb we couldn’t see a thing which was disappointing. We stopped at a council campsite by Lake Gunn another lovely setting. We drank some wine, played cards and had a good laugh, but didn’t have a late one as we were up early in the morning to visit Milford Sound.
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