We arrived in Christchurch, NZ from Melbourne, AU on Feb 8th. The weather was cooler as expected but we weren't prepared for the devastation in CC that the earthquake had caused one year ago. All the city center area was closed to traffic and the once beautiful cathedral was a pile of rubble. Our hearts were heavy as we headed to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula where we did get a few rays of sun and started to fall in love with our new adventure in New Zealand.
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| Our billboard express!! |
Banks Peninsula and this is Akaroa, a busy little tourist port catering to the cruise ships. There is some French background here also.
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| RV site in Akaroa overlooking the harbour. |
From Akaroa our jouney led us to Oamaru graced by it's Victorian architecture. The weather was very cold and drizzly. Irene bought a beanie (toque) to keep warm and Antoine's got our business that day also (in need of warmer clothes). Hot toddies were the order of the evening as we were both already fighting sinus colds.
In Oamaru there were observation decks for viewing of yellow eyed penguins only about 1/2 mile from town. At dusk they waddle from the sea to feed their young in burrows in the cliffs. They are one of the world's rarest penguins. This is on our video camera full zoom so you can see that people are not encouraged to disturb them. Dave estimates he was 600 ft away. These are quite a bit larger than the little ones we saw in AU.
These are named the Moeraki Boulders. We ventured unto the beach on our way to Dunedin to see them. These boulders are apparently formed over the centuries like oysters make pearls around a grain of sand. Except these are made around pieces of wood or large shells, etc and eventually are washed from the cliffs onto the beach where the ocean waves finally uncover the beautiful formations.
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| Dave taking a close look for himself. |
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| OOPS |
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| Dunedin and it's awesome Edwardian/Victorian structures |
Well we know about The Crookedest Street on Lombard St in San Fran, here we have the steepest.
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| Our trip onto the Otago Peninsula from Dunedin. This is the low road. |
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Mother sitting on 2 week old chick. The blue gadget is a form of outdoor air conditioning. The birds like it cold. We never saw the chick nor one in flight close enough to take a photo.
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A Royal Albatross has a wing span of 3 meters. Albatrosses are the largest birds in the world. This species is ranked 3rd as the largest wing span is 31/2 meters.
Larnach Castle on the high road going back to Dunedin from the tip of the Otago. We spoke with a Scottish fellow in the RV park who was not impressed, "that was NOT a castle!!"
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| The high road had awesome vistas. Nicer on a sunny day I think! |
Grounds around the castle. "Only castle in NZ"
4 comments:
Sounds like the weather there is a little more like home! Don't worry though, as the North Island tends to be warmer. Great pics of Dunedin as I missed out on that area on my tour.
I hope you see the sun and are feeling better soon!
Well,we can finally donne our shorts here in Queenstown. And we bought some NZ Manuka honey that has medicinal properties, antibacterial in fact, so our sinus thing will be a thing of the past soon. Actually they are quite good already but very interested in this honey that we bought on the way here at a roadside store. Checking into all the activities.
What did Dave find at the bottom of the rock - Paul wants to know. It's beautiful in CC.
Ahhh Manuka honey. I discovered it a few years ago and got esp. Simone over some rough patches with her colds. It's costly here.
Luv P&C
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