We need to be in Queenstown Sunday afternoon to get ready to leave for the Milford Track hike Monday morning. Because the drive from Hokitika to Queenstown is 9-10 hours, we decided to take it in a more leisurely two days by stopping in Haast, the last town accessible from the main highway on the […]
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Crossing the continental divide at Arthur’s Pass we drove to Greymouth on the Tasman Sea (the suburb of the Pacific Ocean shared by New Zealand and Australia). The drive across the pass was on a dramatic alpine highway. You can see the one chute that channels a creek over the road and the larger avalanche […]
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Another day of very few words — but this time many more pictures. Why are there mountains? So that we can climb them of course. Today our objective was Avalanche Peak, which rises above Arthur’s Pass Village. I had been worried about this day, because I had read that, although the weather may be fine […]
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No long essays today! We left the Banks Peninsula and drove to Arthur’s Pass Village. There is a range of high mountains that form the spine running down the center of most of the South Island of New Zealand. That they are called the “Southern Alps” might give you the impression that there are few […]
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A millenium ago, when the Maori first arrived, the Banks Peninsula was heavily forested, mostly in red beech trees with evergreens (not the ones we know, but rather from the family Podocarpaceae that are mostly native to New Zealand). In 1838 Jean Langlois, the captain of a French whaling ship purchased from local Maori what […]
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We finished our day in Christchurch by attending a choral evensong at the Anglican cathedral in Christchurch. The singing, done by the men and boys of the cathedral choir was lovely. As part of an annual event called the Festival of Flowers, the central aisle of the nave was decorated by a living floral carpet. This was a flower arrangement on […]
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Hi – We’re finally made it to our hotel about 1:30 AM Christchurch time last night — almost exactly 24 hours after we got up to leave for the airport. After a good night’s sleep we are spending the day walking in town. Our motel is about 8 km from the center of the city towards the […]
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Our flight did start boarding this morning before 7. We learned from the Captain that the delay had been caused because there had been a fuel leak on the plane when it had been crossing to Los Angeles. However, because the leak was small, it had been necessary to bring specialists from Boeing in Seattle down to […]
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When we arrived at LAX at 4:15 for our 8:10 flight (we were worried about rush hour traffic but there really was not any), we were informed that our flight was delayed two hours. Then at 6:30, while we were waiting at the gate, V Australia announced that, because of mechanical problems, our flight would […]
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This is where we will be adding pictures and descriptions of our 2 months in New Zealand. Here is our itinerary .
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