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Published: March 31st 2005
On the road
A view into Lyttelton Harbour (on the way to Akaroa)We arrived in
Christchurch mid-afternoon on Tuesday 22nd March after a sleepless night-flight from Singapore and a 3 hour stopover in Sydney. Jetlagged and very tired we took a bus to the city centre, walked to our hostel and were delighted to find that a) it was full and b) there was a problem with our reservation (that is, we didn't have one anymore). Luckily, they very kindly helped us secure a room at another hostel where we immediately went to sleep...
...mid-evening, we walked a few hundred yards to KFC, ate chicken and then crawled back to bed....
...by 1am we were wide awake...
The next day we had a pleasant stroll around the very 'English' Christchurch (even the overcast weather was very English) but were delighted to locate the first Cornish pasty of 2005! (SE Asia is good for beaches, wildlife, seafood, noodles, weather etc. but lousy when it comes to pastry-based products).
The next day we picked up a rental car (a 1995 Nissan Sunny) and set off to explore South Island:
First Stop:
Akaroa (2 nights in the wonderful "Bon Accord Backpackers") which is a little French-influenced harbour which sits in a
sea-flooded volcanic crater at the end of the Banks Peninsula. The drive was spectacular and Akaroa itself is a tiny and very peaceful place.
Next stop:
Methven (2 nights) on the edge of the Southern Alps, next to the Mount Hutt Ski-field. It rained for the whole of the first day but on the next morning (Easter Sunday) there was glorious sunshine. We went to the morning service in the nearby wooden anglican church and in the afternoon hiked along the edge of the Rakaia gorge, spotting many Fantails along the way.
Third stop:
Lake Tekapo (2 nights in what could be the best YHA in NZ), after a spectacular drive through Mt. Somers, Geraldine and Fairlee and a stop for a walk at Peel Forest (some giant Totara trees). The lake is a brilliant turquoise blue and a very strange sight indeed. From Tekapo we took a drive via Lake Pukaki (another even more brilliant turquoise) up to Mt. Cook (the highest mountain in NZ). From there we took a hike up the Hooker Glacial valley, saw icebergs and discovered that we needed to buy hats and gloves.
Yesterday we drove via Twizel and the Waitaki
valley (stopping along the way for Maori rock paintings, the Elephant Rocks* and the Earthquakes caves and fossil whale) leaving Canterbury and arriving in
Oamaru in Otago.
*where we have just discovered that Disney have filmed scenes for their forthcoming version of "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe".
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