I don’t think I said enough yesterday about the destruction in Christchurch. It’s everywhere, not just in City Centre. Just a block from here is a church with rubble all around it, chain link fence surrounding its patron saint statue. The surviving part of its steeple sits on concrete blocks on the ground. We saw several cases of that for big and small buildings around the city. Next door to the above church, there is nothing left but a pile of timbers for whatever was there. Walking, as we did yesterday, means finding blocks where totally fenced in where you have to detour just to find a way to walk past. Barbie told me she had gotten close to the center square and saw the front of the cathedral. Not sure I really wanted to see that, but sad I missed it, too. My pictures will only hint at what’s around.
Sun comes up early (around 6:00) and doesn’t set until well after 9:00. The further south we go, the days will lengthen even more. Went to bed last night about 10:30 and slept soundly until about 4:00, then dozed off and on until 5:30 when I gave it up and did my ablutions and dressed. I had set the alarm for 6:30, but … Dave also was up early.
Oh, the panic yesterday was that Val had left her purse (with her passport, credit cards, money, and meds) on the airplane from the North Island. She was, as you can only imagine, quite upset. Stewart called the airport here and got to live voice who checked and found they had the purse in their safe, someone had seen it under Val’s seat when they were cleaning the plane! So, a trip to the airport and back and Val had her purse. Only in NZ could this be handled so well and so informally. Disaster of the moment avoided.
We’re going to Pepperberry for breakfast this AM, same place where we had lunch yesterday. Met there at 7:15. Then we gathered and waited for the van. Left about 9:30 with our luggage in a trailer and other stuff in the van. It took until 1:50 to get to Kaikoura, which is only 2.5 hours away from Christchurch. First there was a stop at a grocery store in Christchurch for people to get snacks and whatever. Then there was a potty stop in Cheviot. Then we stopped again along the road to take pictures of a bush called broom which covered the hills in yellow flowers. Finally into Kaikoura, we stopped for a nice lunch while the driver and Phillip went to the motel and got our luggage into our rooms.
Lunch over, we drove up the coast a few miles to a point where there were lots and lots of fur seals on the rocks. There were families of seals, new-born pups, males tussling with each other, seals in the water fishing. Needless to say, I took literally hundreds of pictures of the animals and the rocks and the kelp beds and the ocean and the seashore and the breakers and and …
Got back into town and the motel (Panorama Motel --- nothing to rave about --- lousy WiFi --- plain rooms) and had about a half hour before getting back on the van (it was now drizzling) and going to the Green Dolphin for dinner. Elegant and expensive dinner with good NZ wine. Laaaaaammmmb!
We’re supposed to get up at 5:00 am tomorrow and it’s around 11:00 as I finish this. The weather is cold and rainy. If it’s smooth out to sea, we’re going out to look for Dusky Dolphins and Albatross. We’ll know about 5:15 whether we’re going, which we all doubt given what’s going on outside. If the trip isn’t tomorrow, then we’ll try for Saturday morning … so have to get up really early two days in a row.
Finally, Phillip showed all manuka trees along the way. And he said that the Australian tea tree is really about the same thing, but goes under a different name there.
Sun comes up early (around 6:00) and doesn’t set until well after 9:00. The further south we go, the days will lengthen even more. Went to bed last night about 10:30 and slept soundly until about 4:00, then dozed off and on until 5:30 when I gave it up and did my ablutions and dressed. I had set the alarm for 6:30, but … Dave also was up early.
Oh, the panic yesterday was that Val had left her purse (with her passport, credit cards, money, and meds) on the airplane from the North Island. She was, as you can only imagine, quite upset. Stewart called the airport here and got to live voice who checked and found they had the purse in their safe, someone had seen it under Val’s seat when they were cleaning the plane! So, a trip to the airport and back and Val had her purse. Only in NZ could this be handled so well and so informally. Disaster of the moment avoided.
We’re going to Pepperberry for breakfast this AM, same place where we had lunch yesterday. Met there at 7:15. Then we gathered and waited for the van. Left about 9:30 with our luggage in a trailer and other stuff in the van. It took until 1:50 to get to Kaikoura, which is only 2.5 hours away from Christchurch. First there was a stop at a grocery store in Christchurch for people to get snacks and whatever. Then there was a potty stop in Cheviot. Then we stopped again along the road to take pictures of a bush called broom which covered the hills in yellow flowers. Finally into Kaikoura, we stopped for a nice lunch while the driver and Phillip went to the motel and got our luggage into our rooms.
Lunch over, we drove up the coast a few miles to a point where there were lots and lots of fur seals on the rocks. There were families of seals, new-born pups, males tussling with each other, seals in the water fishing. Needless to say, I took literally hundreds of pictures of the animals and the rocks and the kelp beds and the ocean and the seashore and the breakers and and …
Got back into town and the motel (Panorama Motel --- nothing to rave about --- lousy WiFi --- plain rooms) and had about a half hour before getting back on the van (it was now drizzling) and going to the Green Dolphin for dinner. Elegant and expensive dinner with good NZ wine. Laaaaaammmmb!
We’re supposed to get up at 5:00 am tomorrow and it’s around 11:00 as I finish this. The weather is cold and rainy. If it’s smooth out to sea, we’re going out to look for Dusky Dolphins and Albatross. We’ll know about 5:15 whether we’re going, which we all doubt given what’s going on outside. If the trip isn’t tomorrow, then we’ll try for Saturday morning … so have to get up really early two days in a row.
Finally, Phillip showed all manuka trees along the way. And he said that the Australian tea tree is really about the same thing, but goes under a different name there.
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