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Published: September 18th 2009
Hotel So
Our room was the yellow corner.It should be mentioned that we spent about a week and a half in Hamilton for Aaron's orientation. Hamilton, which is a larger city an hour-and-a-half northwest of Rotorua, gets a bad rap for being a place where there's not much going on. However, we found it to be quite nice. It has a reasonably big downtown area, with lots of nice restaurants and boutiques. There are also the stellar Hamilton Gardens, which are breathtaking - and free to visit! We will return to the gardens in October to see the flowers blooming. Hamilton is also a convenient stop on the way to the Waitomo River, where we will do a rafting and abseiling (rappelling) excursion soon.
After Hamilton, we took off for the south island. First stop, Christchurch. Christchurch is a really interesting mix of new and old. There are many old, gothic buildings, including the most photographed cathedral in New Zealand. And then there are many newer buildings, as well as modern sculptures that dot the street corners and European-style squares. Beautiful parks and public spaces, and tons of flowers (though most aren't in bloom yet). Christchurch is referred to as "the garden city" for good reason.
Man on Wire
One of the cool art installations in SOL Square in Christchurch We stayed at an interesting hotel in Christchurch, called Hotel So. It's a very cool, modern hotel, with lots of high-concept artwork, sleek shapes, and swanky music. But the idea here is that design should be affordable, so to keep room prices low, they cut out the extras. There is no housekeeping, unless you request and pay for it. Our king room fit only the bed, some night table space, the wall-mounted TV and a wall rack to hang clothes. The bathroom was done in a utilitarian industrial style, and was wedge-shaped. You couldn't dry off in the shower! Overall, it was a nice hotel, and fun to check out, but I'm not sure if we'll stay there again.
So, we spent a couple days checking out Christchurch. They have some cool pedestrial areas, including the new-ish SOL (South of Lichfield) lane, which contains some cool shops, restaurants, and art installations. The city's art gallery, really a museum, was completed only 6 years ago. It's a big, wavy monolith - it reminds me of the Experience Music center in Seattle, except that it's glass instead of metal. Very nice building, and some interesting exhibits inside by Ronnie van Hout
Cathedral Square
The most photographed cathedral in NZ and Seraphine Pick (check out http://www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz/ for more info on the gallery and these artists).
We left Christchurch early Tuesday on the Tranz Alpine Railroad. This is a 4.5 hour train ride across the island, from Christchurch northwest to Greymouth, with some beautiful scenery. We went near the Southern Alps and numerous lakes, through forests, tunnels and viaducts, over rivers, and through the heart of the renowned Arthur's Pass national park.
From Greymouth, we drove north a short distance to Punakaiki and the famous Pancake Rocks. The drive features lots of interesting boulders and rock formations in the water along the west coast; alot of photographs are taken here for books and tourism. The Pancake Rocks rocks themselves are tall and, you guessed it, they look like stacks of pancakes. Interestingly, there is no scientific explanation for their formations. We walked the path through the rocks, and then took a short trail off the road out to the beach of the Tasman Sea.
Back to Greymouth for sunset over some huge boulders by the beach. There was a large tribute stone featuring names of people who had lost their lives to the sea in that area. With
Victoria Square
Home to numerous statues, fountains, and flowers, as well as punting on the Avon the height and violence of the waves, it was easy to see how that could happen if you swam out too far or had boat problems or whatever.
Wednesday morning saw us getting up before dawn to reach Franz Josef Glacier. Having never been to a glacier before, I was kind of expecting it to be like skating on top of a giant ice cube. Not so much - it's more like hiking up a giant ice mountain. The climbs up to and down from the ice were a bit grueling, but being on the glacier itself was an out-of-this-world experience. The challenge, the views, the fresh air, the best water we've ever tasted - it was incredible. We went up and down stairs and ladders created in the ice, through tunnels and caves and other interesting ice formations. Regardless of my lack of grace, and in spite of having no experience with crampons, I proudly managed to stay upright the entire time. (Okay, I did soak one foot in a hidden puddle.)
After a relaxing evening at the Glacier Hot Pools, public baths filled with different temperatures of glacier water, we hit the road the following day
Disturbed
One of the creepy pieces from the Ronnie van Hout exhibit for Wanaka. It was a long drive to Wanaka, but with lots to see on the way including the Southern Alps, numerous waterfalls, and Haast Pass. Wanaka itself is a gorgeous little lake town - probably comparable to Aspen but not quite so big, expensive, and snooty. The town is situated on Lake Wanaka, and this lake is right next to Lake Hawea. Both lakes are huge, with mirror qualities and picturesque views. The largest mountain in the area is Mount Aspiring, which overlooks Lake Wanaka and is a popular destination for skiing and snowboarding.
One really fun thing we did in Wanaka was visit Puzzling World. This place features many different optical illusions and "How did they do that" puzzles and riddles. There's a room where, depending on where you stand, you look like a giant or a dwarf. There's a hall of following faces, and a room with a tilted floor where water seemingly runs uphill. There's also an outdoor maze. Now we know what hamsters feel like... We ended by taking some photos outside near the clock tower. Not surprisingly, the clock runs backwards.
On to Oamaru. The drive to Oamaru took us back across
the south island, from the west to the east. Not only did we drive through tons of mountains, but we also saw the bluest lakes - so blue, you'd swear you were looking at the ocean. We made a quick stop outside Oamaru to see the wallabies. Yes, there is a wallaby farm in New Zealand! The proprietor, Gwen, was a trip. Very nice, boisterous, loud woman who's been rescuing wallabies for 30 years. Hunters bring her wallabies that they find in the woods that seem to need rehabilitation, and any wallabies that are born on her farm are taken to zoos and gardens. We had a great time feeding, petting, and playing with the wallabies, especially the baby, Luciano.
Oamaru has a few neat attractions, the first and most obvious being the Victorian architecture. The downtown area has many old buildings with this very elaborate, ornate style. And then there are the animal attractions, penguins, and seals. For the former, there is an area where the fur seals like to congregate on some boulders and sun themselves. It was chilly and gray the day we went, so we didn't see too many - probably five or six. As
The Southern Alps...
... as viewed from the Tranz Alpine train for the latter, there are two unique kinds of penguins that colonize here: yellow eyed penguins and blue penguins. We watched a few of the yellow eyeds walk up the beach into the brush (they do this late every afternoon) and later sought out some of the blue penguins crossing the street. Not much luck there but we did see one penguin sitting on its eggs, and then heard it exchange mating calls with its partner who waddled home.
Just south of Oamaru is Moeraki, known for the Moeraki Boulders. These are nearly perfectly round spherical boulders that sit right at the edge of the ocean. They look like dinosaur eggs, and some of the broken boulders look as if the eggs had hatched. We had fun trying to pose and look like we were being hatched, but I don't think we were very convincing.
A short distance from the rocks is a fantastic, internationally acclaimed restaurant called Fleur's Place. The menu changes depending on the fish caught each day. It was so good and so fresh that we ate there twice.
After two days in Oamaru it was time to head back to Christchurch. Of course,
no drive north to Christchurch is complete without at stop at the Cookie Time factory. Cookie Time is a huge brand here, and their large cookies are sold at many cafes and convenience stores. We bought a few bags of broken cookies at a discount. They taste just as good!
We got massages and had dinner in Christchurch, and then spend Monday getting home. And, in spite of our being here, it was still a bummer to get back. I guess there really is no cure for the post-vacation blues. Though it helps to plan another trip - we're already working on a schedule for a few days in Queenstown and the fjords (aka Fjordland) next month.
And that's the news for now... stay tuned for some of our upcoming weekend adventures and trips. Thanks for reading!
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bernie
non-member comment
Great blog. Enjoyed both the commentary and the pics.