Day 23 - Akaroa & Christchurch

Wednesday 27 Apr

Driving through the suburb of Halswell, I saw a sign advertising the ‘Lych-gate Health and Wellness Centre’ but was not quick enough to get a photo. Considering that lych-gates were where coffins rested while waiting for the minister to escort it to the grave, it seems a singularly inappropriate name. 

There were a couple of photo stops on the way to Akaroa, one just past the ‘Sign of the Takahe’, still closed for renovations after quake damage. Another at the Little River Railway Station, now a craft shop. We waved at my friend Kathy (not that she was in sight) as we passed  the local pub that she and her husband run.

On arrival at Akaroa we were free to wander for about 90 minutes before the bus collected us again. After admiring the stunning blue pearls grown in pauas (and very expensive), we wandered the length of the main street before separating. 

 

I can't resist a good library

I checked out the three old churches, Catholic St Patrick's, Presbyterian Trinity, and Anglican St Peter's.

St Patrick's Catholic Church

Next we drove to Lyttleton, and did a quick circuit of the town. The Lyttleton Tunnel is 1.3 km long, and has seven acres of white tiled walls. (I wonder how long it takes to do the cleaning!) Ellen kindly pointed out Coleridge St as we drove past (where my John William Barnes lived for a while), and we drove down Oxford St, where he also lived. Apart from that short burst of excitement, Lyttleton was a non-event, we did not stop or get out of the bus at all. 

Driving back to Christchurch we stopped at the cardboard cathedral, which was quite brilliant, and very moving. It was designed by a Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, who had done something similar for a church in Kobe after their 1995 earthquake. Wikipedia has a fascinating article on him at 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeru_Ban

Irene and Gaewyn admiring the interior

The stained glass incorporates part of the Rose Window from the old Cathedral

 
Obviously this is the only cardboard Cathedral in the world, and was evidently one of the reasons that Lonely Planet Guide named Christchurch one of the most exciting places to visit. The walls are made of eight containers, and the roof has 86 cardboard tubes, weighing 500kg each. 


















Since the last tour stopped here just over a month ago, they have added two enormous wreaths, made of over 17,000 paper flowers, every one of which was hand-made. An artist from Amberley, just north of Christchurch, his wife and some of the locals, spent six months making the paper from rags and flax, shaping and drying the flowers, then putting it all together, as a gesture of sympathy and solidarity for Christchurch. 

A better view of the container walls

Many streets in Christchurch are closed for repair, and there are detours everywhere. Ellen sits with a map on her knee instead of her GPS, as she frequently needs to find a different route. We drove down one short by-street to go through to another main road, only to discover that the other end had become a one-lane, one –way track to a carpark, and we were facing the wrong way. It was a mark of the great teamwork that Wayne & Ellen displayed, she out in her high-vis jacket guiding, and him doing a very tight 23-point turn (or what seemed like it) to get back to our original road. No-one had seen any sign that the street had changed from a through-road when we turned into it. As the final turn was safely completed, Wayne got a well-deserved and very loud round of applause. 

At that point everyone was happy to give away the rest of the tour and just get back to the hotel, however even that took a while, with further detours and heavy traffic. Thank goodness for kindles!

This was our first evening having dinner here, and evidently it is very popular with the locals as well. We can now see why. The buffet features at least three different cuisines, and has a large selection of dishes for each. It stretches on forever! For dessert there were two hot dishes with custard, and at least a dozen cold selections. The coffee table had cheese and crackers available, and altogether it was an amazing feast. 

Day 22 - Twizel to Christchurch

Tuesday 26 Apr

Passing Lake Pukaki by 8.30, and we got our final views of Mt Cook, looking spectacular in the morning sun. If not for erosion, the Southern Alps would be about 20 kms higher than they are, but the effects of the constant erosion balances out the uplift caused by the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates.

Half an hour later we saw the Mt John Observatory on the skyline. It is a World Sky Heritage site due to the superb night sky viewing conditions. Lake Tekapo, our next photo stop is one of the most scenic places in the country (which is saying a lot!), and often features on calendars. The town is one of the fastest-growing in the country, but has extremely strict lighting regulations due to its proximity to Mt John. 

Next on the list was the Church of the Good Shepherd, which is known for its spectacular view through the altar window. However the church does not now open until 10 am, and we were on the way again before that. There is a notice to say that photography in the church is no longer allowed anyway, so that was a slight comfort. 

Just before 11 am we arrived in Timaru (currently the second-largest fishing port in the country - who knew?) for a morning tea break. We had been mentioning shortly before that how hot the bus was getting, and while we went off, Ellen & Wayne checked for a problem. We returned by mid-day to find we were also stopping here for lunch while they got a mechanic to replace the broken belt which had caused the problem, and after further delays, we were finally on the road again by 2 pm. Although there is never a good time for these things to happen, we were all grateful that we were close to a main town for repairs, and that Wayne keeps a full set of spares on board. A couple of us were really sorry that this delay meant that we did not get to stop in Geraldine for lunch, me for family history reasons (it is where Mum’s father grew up), and Lorraine because she had planned to meet a friend for lunch there. 

We drove straight on to Christchurch, with only a quick comfort stop, and arrived at the Garden Hotel only about half an hour late. 

After a quick drink, Zhang Ji and Silas arrived to collect us for dinner. We stopped to collect Francesca from her orchestra practice and got to watch and listen to the last 20 minutes. Then home to Ilam for a delicious dinner, and a bonus chat to Sharon in Perth, who had rung Anne-Marie to say hello.

Day 21 - Dunedin to Twizel

Monday 25 Apr

An earlier start today at 7.45 am, as we hoped to reach Oamaru before the streets were closed for the Anzac Parade at 10-00.

We travelled through more lovely pastureland with Ellen pointing out places of interest as we went. Our first stop was at the Moeraki Boulders, a place I have long wanted to see. They are amazing.  Fascinating things, formed by material accruing around a object such as a crab’s shell which continued to gather more material – I thought of a pearl except these things are enormous. Some had split open and you could see the gradual formation which had occurred. Apparently they are actually buried in the cliff face and are slowly emerging as the cliff erodes. Heaven only knows how many more remain to be found. According to Wikipedia, the larger ones (2m or more in diameter) took 4 to 5.5 million years to grow. 

Back on the bus and in to Oamaru. Just moments too late to miss the road closure for the Anzac parade but Wayne parked the bus conveniently close and it was a short step to the very wide avenue which is the main street. Beautiful old buildings all built in Oamaru stone. For those who do not know, so are the Auckland Town Hall and main Post Office (now Britomart). Lovely street with a grass and tree lined centre strip.
The parade was very moving with representatives of all the services plus scouts, Girl Guides, St Johns, Fire and Police, etc, etc. The band finished by playing Nearer My God To Thee, just in time for us to head back to the bus. 

Wayne took us on a little tiki -tour to see more examples of buildings in the very beautiful stone and then we were off to lunch at Omarama.  Their claim to fame is having 'unparalleled gliding conditions'.

From there we took a fascinating trip up the Waitaki River, stopping at the power stations at Aviemore and Benmore for photos. Eight power stations were planned for this river, and I think Benmore was the last to be built. It is the largest earth dam in NZ, and the amount of water in the lake behind it is 1.5 times as much as that in the Wellington Harbour. Everywhere along these lakes are golden poplars shimmering in the breeze, and it is hard to put the camera down. Much pruning of photos will be needed tonight. The lakes and canals are the most brilliant blue, and remind me of the colour of the water around Capri. It comes from the ice-melt off the mountains, and contains mica.

Lake Pukaki is a storage lake, like Hawea, which we saw on the other coast. During the spring and summer, the extra water coming down is stored to provide the extra power needed by the country for heating in winter.

This area has lots of wilding pines, which need a constant eradication program, but DOC have a hard job keeping up with the new ones coming through, which is a shame.
Many areas we have seen on our journey are also covered with gorse.
 
On the way through the foothills heading up to Mt Cook, Ellen mentioned that the Southern Alps have over 750 different species of alpine plants and flowers. I find that a little hard to imagine. 

 Mt Cook was there in all his magnificence. I have not said it yet but once again we were enjoying a perfectly fine day. The odd neat cloud on a brilliant blue sky and Mt Cook and his neighbours looked fantastic. The Hermitage is 12 km from the Mount. It was first erected in 1884, rebuilt 1914, destroyed by fire in 1957, and the current reincarnation opened in 1958.

One of the lovely windows in the Hermitage

After lots of photos, we finally gathered together again and wended our way to Twizel, where we are staying the night. 

Day 20 - Dunedin

Sunday 24 Apr


This is a free day with no events planned so we decided to investigate a grave of one of Anne's Great  Great Grandmothers (Harriet Wilson, nee Venner).We found we could catch a bus part of the way despite the fact that Dunedin does not really believe people would want buses on a Sunday and with difficulty - my navigational skills are getting worse, found the right bus stop and in due course we were picked up, told the driver where we wanted to go and sat right up front. He was a chatty soul and we talked about living in Dunedin etc and as the bus emptied and we were the only passengers left he offered to take us much closer to the cemetery than the actual bus route. Google maps had told us it was a 12 minute walk but they got that one wrong. Even after the driver had probably reduced the journey by at least half it still took twenty minutes or so and most of that was uphill. Still the day was sunny, we were  very close to the sea and the views were lovely.

Anderson's Bay Cemetery

I had the block number from the Dunedin online cemetery search, and a map, so went straight to the place, but then spent half an hour walking up and down the rows, and the ones either side, with no joy. The NZSG transcribed the headstones here many years ago, and I have a copy of Harriet's monumental inscription, so I know it did exist. The only thing I can think of is that it has been vandalised and the remains tidied away.

After the Cemetery search we walked down the hill to the first bus stop we found only to discover the timetables only covered Monday to Saturday. We had checked online and there should have been a bus but.... so off we set walking. We knew we could always get a cab but the day was nice, the air fresh and clean and the old homes and cottages neat to see so we walked, and walked, and walked until we reached the point that we were close to the street Anne's G.G. Gmother lived in, so we decided to check it out. Regretfully it is now an industrial site. Ah well, them's the breaks.

Back to the main road and at last we found a bus stop with a Sunday Timetable. By this time our legs were really complaining (8 km walked so far today according to Anne's fitbit) so we thankfully sat and patiently waited and in due course, lo and behold, it was our previous driver but coming from a totally different street. He brought us into town and we then wandered up the main shopping street.

We came upon a photographic exhibition put on by the Dunedin Community Gallery, of the People of South Dunedin. Shots of 34 of the locals, with a biographical note of what they do, and their comments about their home suburb. It was really well done, and made us want to know the people.

People of South Dunedin

Further on the Knox Presbyterian Church appeared, a lovely old structure. I think, although haven't checked yet, that some of my rellies were married here, and since it was open - not always a given in NZ - we had a look around. It was built in 1860, rebuilt in 1877 when they ran out of room, and updated in the 1960's, so the inside was not quite as historical as I had hoped. 

 On to the Otago Museum.This is a very new building and is extremely impressive. I must admit my legs had totally given up by this time although it had been my wish to come here so I found a really comfortable armchair and let Anne do the exploring for both of us.

 I checked out the early Maori history in the area, and was impressed at how well they have done their displays. I then found a special exhibition on Maori women of the local tribe, with panels for each individual. Most had photos, bio's, and a mini family tree. Like the South Dunedin exhibition, they all looked like people we wanted to know. Many are still alive, and all have made a mark on society.

Otago Museum

A gentle walk back to the hotel and here we are. Off early tomorrow, as we want to be at Oamaru before the 10 am Anzac Parade closes the streets.

Total mileage for the day - 12k