Advertisement
Published: June 16th 2014
Edit Blog Post
A good night's rest can do a body good. We slept well and got up at 6 am to begin our day. Having to completely repack, we were able to better organize the car to give us a few more inches in the back seat. That made the girls happy. We are rotating seats each day, except for mine, lol, so each girl gets a turn in the front seat. The day was cold, cloudy, and rainy, about 41 degrees.
First stop this morning was the grocery store, Countdown. We have apartment style accommodations in most of our stops and food is INCREDIBLY expensive here.There was a store next to the grocery which we thought was the likely choice for food called Farmers, but that appears to be a store like K-mart. We laughed when we saw bras and panties in all the front windows. Not our idea of a yummy meal. We enjoyed strolling through the store and seeing what was different and familiar. It was crazy seeing the "International" section of the grocery store with American products... mostly crap food like Pop Tarts and sugared cereals and flavored peanut butter. It would appear to the rest of the
world all we have to offer is fat producing consumables. This leads back to the "Americano" size at restaurants referring to the largest size available. We left with fresh baked bread, deli meats, chips, cookies, fruit, and so local sweets.
Next was the City Center of Christchurch to see the devastation of the Earthquake in 2010. Most of the City Center is under construction and being rebuilt. This was so incredible to me. Here it is, four years later, working every day, and they are still not even cleaned up much of the debris. When LA had the Northridge earthquake with massive damage to buildings and freeways, we were up and back to normal in mere weeks. The size of the population and resources here is scarce.
We went to see the Old Cathedral. The damage is very evident here. The building is completely protected and showcased as an example of the damage. The city has made the area still functional and beautiful with all the safety fencings. To contrast to this we headed down a couple blocks to the new cathedral. It is called the cardboard cathedral for a reason, it is actually MADE of cardboard! I was shocked!
It was so beautiful. Modern and beautiful. The front windows are based on pictures of the pieces of the Rose and Stained Glass windows of the old cathedral. This entire country is so aware of the carbon footprint they leave and so many things are so responsible to the environment. So little waste here. I am impressed and inspired. I am definitely taking a few ideas home. We also visited the earthquake memorial on the block behind the cathedral. It is a shocking display. 185 chairs of all sizes and shapes to represent all those who died during the earthquake. Particularly shocking were the baby seat and the kinder chair.
Now we are off to Mount Cook, and our first Lord of the Rings filming location. We head south toward the Rangitata Valley, home of Helm's Deep and the Land of Rohan, and capital city of Edoras.
The land is immense and barren. It is nearly winter here and this area is very cold. The stark, flat plains the end abruptly as the Mountains raise straight out of the ground. It is hard to explain or even show you in a photo the beauty that this place is.
We continued
to Lake Tekapo. The day had cleared but was very cold and windy. We stopped for the obligatory photo of the historical Church of the Good Shepard. It is on my must do list of New Zealand. The view of the church by the side of the lake it beautiful (a word you are going to read a lot in these blog post, I am sure). We ran into a photographer we have followed on Pinterest for the past year of this trip planning and watch for a bit as he photographer his stunning model near the waters edge. It was so cold! Poor girl. I look forward to finding his photos online.
Time was getting short and I wanted to get to our evening accommodations before the sun went down and that was just one hour away. We jump back in the car, say a sad goodbye to the Mt. John's observatory as there was no time, and keep driving the last 105 km to The Hermitage Hotel at the base of Aoraki Mt. Cook.
We round the last turn and drive up Lake Pukahi to the end of the road, literally at the base of the mountain. The
lake is unbelievably blue. It color of all the water in this country is a beautiful turquoise blue because of a chemical reaction of the glacier dust in the water. We literally arrive with the last drop of sunlight. The Hermitage is a modern, yet some how cosy in this Alpine setting. It houses the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center and Planetarium. Sir Hillary is on the $5 NZ. He was the first one to reach the top of Mt. Cook (and Mt. Everest) and pioneered advances in mountain climbing. He resided in the area. WE opted to stay in the lower village instead of he hotel itself. We stayed in a two room apartment style place. it was warm and toasty and comfortable. We walked next door to the sports bar and ordered a great dinner. We watched the Poconos 400 with a local NZ rugby team and they were so impressed with the girls and my knowledge of Nationwide racing. Thank you NASCAR!
Great day to a new part of the country and off to new adventures.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.162s; Tpl: 0.027s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.1215s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kari
non-member comment
Following
Love the individual pictures of the girls with the circle art behind them. Please be sure to get in front of the camera sometimes, Minda!