Time to fly home, via Sydney

Monday, April 15, 2019  Christchurch to Sydney, to Cincinnati

On our final morning, we had time before our shuttle to the airport to take another walk. We strolled a short distance to Victoria Square. We returned to the hotel and checked out, and waited in the library next door, until our shuttle arrived.

During our shuttle ride, we passed immediately in front of the mosque where the shooting had occurred. It was overflowing with flowers and poster messages expressing sympathy and support. 


We flew back to Sydney and took an Uber to an Airbnb near the airport. It was a massive apartment complex, and was a bit tricky to get in, but the hostess greeted us and led us through the complex to their apartment. We remained there instead of trying to go out to dinner. We visited with her on her patio in the nice night weather. The husband was on his computer the entire time.

The next morning, I recall things going okay until it was time to find our way out of the apartment. We couldn't open the door to leave! No one was there to help. We got panicky, but finally she showed up and helped us to get out the door.

Another Uber to the airport, and then the long flight to Houston and on to Cincinnati.

What an incredible trip, but five weeks seemed too long.

Earthquake- and recent-tragedy-damaged Christchurch

Sunday, April 14, 2019  Tekapo to Christchurch

Hahahahaha. This is from our final dinner at the private home of "Gate 1 friends" (I forget their names.) The hosts gave us special assignments during the dinner, and mine was to make sure everyone's water glasses remained full. What an attractive apron they gave me to wear!

This special dinner was our final tour farewell event. It was an elegant affair and we all had a marvelous time.

We departed Tekapo after breakfast, and arrived in Christchurch before noon. Greg gave us another reason we did okay to have missed Franz Josef Glacier: The standard tours that go there have only a smidgen of time to see Christchurch, whereas we would have most of an entire day. As it turned out, Janet and I enjoyed this day in the town immensely, so perhaps we did come out better by seeing Mt Cook Village yesterday and now Christchurch.

Our first stop in Christchurch was the Earthquake Museum. Peter, our bus driver and tour guide, has lived in Christchurch all his life, so he gave us tons of interesting info and fun stories, and knew where to drive us to show us the highlights.

The big "recent" earthquake was on Feb 22, 2011, but eight years later, the city was still not nearly recovered. The 6.7 quake caused widespread damage and 185 people died. The central city and eastern suburbs were badly affected, with damage to buildings and infrastructure already weakened by the magnitude 7.1 Canterbury earthquake of Sept 4, 2010. Significant liquefaction affected the eastern suburbs, producing around 400,000 tons of silt.

I did not take very many photos in the museum, but I got a kick out of the "After Shock" beer. The caption tells how they made this beer just four days after the 7.1 earthquake, on Sept 8, 2010, when a 5.1 aftershock knocked out their electricity. The loss of temperature control meant less water used, which raised the alcohol content in this batch to precisely 7.1%. (Thus, it's actually 14.2 proof.)

This display shows why the South Island is earthquake-prone. The Pacific and Australian plates continue to push up against each other. Records show that a 7.0+ earthquake hits the island on average of once every 10 years.

This display illustrates how buildings now have "shock absorber" bases, so they can move to absorb the jolts. It's called Base Isolation.

 We then went to our hotel, and it was as centrally located as could possibly be. Out our window, we looked down on the Christchurch Cathedral, famous for not yet having been "dealt with" following extensive damage from the earthquake eight years earlier (see the right of it). 

We were on our own to find lunch. Janet and I walked a short distance to New Regent St, with blocked-off traffic and many shops.

The trolley came right down New Regent St!

This view is also out our hotel window, and in the direction of the walk we all took with Greg in the afternoon (to the west). You can still see the crumbled end of the cathedral in the far left of the photo.

We hadn't walked far before we could see more of the cathedral damage. The city has yet to resolve whether they should restore the original structure, or tear it down and start over. It has become a cozy home for birds.

There's Jim as the tram is approaching. We continued west on our walk (behind me), toward the Avon River, Christ's College, and the huge Hagley Park.

One of many buildings we saw that were still boarded up for the past eight years, awaiting a restoration fate. The citizens cannot decide who should pay for the repairs/reconstructions.

Major renovation still underway, eight years later.

A statue to Robert Scott, who died during his quest to be the first to reach the South Pole. He did reach it, but five weeks after Norwegian Roald Amundsen.  Brit Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on Jan 17, 1912, but they never made it back to their base camp.

Crossing the Avon River, where people "punt" as they do on the English Avon River.

We passed a Māori totem with a phrase meaning a farewell to a chief.

 The words across the top of the art gallery are: "Everything will be all right."

We reached Christ's College, an independent, Anglican, secondary, day, and boarding school for boys. It had large cracks in it from the earthquake. We next headed in the door in front of us.

Extensive restoration work in progress.

Inside the Christ's College campus, dating from 1850.

In their chapel, this stained glass window had representations of many famous explorers, artists, scientists, and so on.

We reached the Botanical Gardens, and here is the Peacock Fountain (1911), named for a politician and philanthropist.

Along the wall of the large park was this memorial to the victims of the Muslim shootings just three weeks earlier. We admired that they had such an outpouring of sympathy for the 51 victims.

More signs of support: "We stand together with our Muslim brothers and sisters."

Such a tragedy they were all suffering through.

Pretty walk along the Avon River.

The Bridge of Remembrance, honoring those who died in the first world war.

Looking back from the bridge.

Even the Nespresso store was still boarded up eight years after the earthquake. Hey Nestlé, get with it!

At about this point, our guided walk was over. Jim and Cynthia joined Janet and me who decided to walk to a super market several blocks to the south, to buy souvenirs. It was a long way, but seemed worth it because we bought many of the Whitman's chocolate bars. We decided to Uber back to the hotel.

For dinner, we traveled to a suburb in the hills to a private family. It was truly special.

The men were recruited to help serve the dishes from the kitchen, while the rest of us lined on through to fill our plates. Everything was wonderful.

An enjoyable final evening.

Aoraki / Mt Cook

Saturday, April 13, 2019  Takapo, excursion to Aoraki/Mt Cook

We returned to Lake Pukaki in the morning, so that we could now head straight north along it to Mt Cook Village, just below the mountain range. We took a long hike up to Kea Point, with all the Southern Alp peaks rising above us on a beautifully clear day. In the photo above, we had stopped at a turnout about halfway up Lake Pukaki.

Another multi-pretty photo at the rest stop driving to Mt. Cook Village. We again were blessed with a beautiful day when we craved scenery. If you recall, we weren't even supposed to be seeing Aoraki / Mt. Cook like this, because the tour was supposed to be on the far side of the mountain range, at Franz Joseph Glacier. But on the very day we arrived in Auckland, a storm had washed out a bridge on the only road to it. So, back at Lake Wanaka, instead of continuing north and then west around the back of the Southern Alp range to Franz Joseph Glacier, as Rick, Beth, and Cheryl had done, we went east from Lake Wanaka to Tekapo.

This is the visitor center at Mt Cook Village, which had a hotel, restaurants, the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center, a museum, and numerous tour opportunities to hike or fly into the mountains. We enjoyed the displays at the visitor center, which provided a history of the Southern Alps.

Greg recommended a "45-minute easy hike" to Kea Point. Sure enough, the flyer they handed out described it as "easy" and this way: "This walk gently winds its way through sub-alpine grasslands and scrub to the Mueller Glacier moraine wall, providing stunning views of Mt Sefton, Mueller Glacier Lake, and Aoraki/Mt Cook. 1 to 2 hrs round trip." We were soon to learn that their description vastly underestimated the difficulty and length of this HIKE.

Aoraki / Mt Cook in all its glory as we got closer during our "easy" hike toward it. I liked that there was a jet plane crossing in the sky behind it.

To the southwest of Aoraki / Mt Cook was Mt Sefton, at 10,338 feet. It was much closer to us as we hiked northward. You can see a helicopter, and there were numerous helicopter tours happening on this beautiful Saturday.

This is the view looking south, back at Lake Pukaki.

This is Kea Point, the end of our long and arduous hike.There's a viewing platform ahead, with Aoraki / Mt Cook in the distance to the right. Many in our group, including Janet, were not up to completing the hike to this point, because it got steep and rocky.

That black wall is the Mueller Moraine, with Mueller Lake below it (glacial melt).

Across Mueller Lake to the east was this remnants of a glacier.

My final close-up photo of glorious Aoraki / Mount Cook. As a way to soften any disappointment from our tour not going to Franz Josef Glacier as planned, Greg said that one does not have these spectacular views of the mountains from there (which is behind this peak to the north). Lucky for him, we had this perfect day when that explanation held sway!

 After we returned to the village, we ate some lunch in the cafeteria, and then visited the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center. It opened on May 29, 2008, just four months after he died, on the 55th anniversary of his triumph at Mt Everest.

Notice that they positioned his statue so that he's gazing up at Mt. Cook, which he loved and where he practiced for many years in preparation for his ascent of Mt Everest.

They had this photo of Hillary from 2007, at Aoraki / Mt Cook. I noted that his life span was close to my own father's. He was born six months before Dad, and he died four months after Dad.

This poster showed the path of his Everest ascent in 1953, with Tenzing Norgay. They named a final difficult spot, Hillary Step.

We left Mt Cook Village and drove back to Tekapo. Peter drove the bus down closer to the Church of the Good Shepherd, where I had walked the evening before, so that we could all visit this scenic spot on the lake.

Built of stone and oak in 1935, it has a picture window behind the altar that gives worshipers a distractingly divine view of the lake and mountains. In my photo, there is just one person at the door, but actually it was crowded with tourists, as it also was the evening before.

We had dinner again in the hotel. I recall our table discussing Netflix and other TV series we loved and recommended to each other. This is how Janet and I learned about The Rake. 

On to Criffel Station, Lake Wanaka, and Lake Tekapo

Friday, April 12, 2019  On the road to Tekapo

Another beautiful day, including here at Lake Wanaka where we stopped briefly. We started the day close to Queenstown, visiting Arrowtown. Then a long drive up to Criffel Station for lunch. Then, on past Lake Pukaki for views of Mt Cook, and finally reaching the town at the base of Lake Tekapo.

Arrowtown is only a few miles outside of Queenstown, and it sprang up in 1860 because of the gold rush on the Arrow River. Now it's a quaint "heritage village", but still fully functional as a town. We were given about an hour to wander and do what we liked.

Janet and I spent almost all our time at the Lakes District Museum, and got to learn about the history of the area. I took this photo of an 1882 Pritchard building as we were departing.

We then drove back down the Kawarau Gorge to Cornwall, but this time turned north along Lake Dunstan. When we were almost to Wanaka, next to the airport, we turned west for a mile or so and arrived at Criffel Station.

It was originally farmed as a sheep station since the mid 1800’s, but in 1993 it was converted to a red deer breeding and finishing farm.

 Since 2000, they have expanded it into a "B&B" and wedding venue. We had a nice buffet lunch. Janet and I are in the back left. (Photos above and below: from Keith)

Cute deer to see up close, although the herds of bred deer were off in their 5000 acres of hillsides.

 For tourists, they also had alpacas.

I'm in the photo, so it must be another of Keith's.

We departed Criffel Station and drove the few more miles up to Lake Wanaka, which is 1350 feet deep (deepest in NZ)! We all are out on the short pier, including Janet and me, to look at these:

Slithering, creepy eels! They are actually bony fish, not lampreys. They are catadromous, meaning they spawn in the ocean and mature in freshwater. They live in freshwater for nearly 150 years, and are a popular food fish. They were swarming because someone tossed some food into the water.

We continued northeast into the Lindis Valley and farther to here, the Lindis Pass. Just beyond here, in the MacKenzie Basin, Greg told us about how it's a popular glider area. In 2004, Steve Faucett (USA) and Terry Delore (NZ) set a record there for gliding 1360 miles.

This was a marker at Lindis Pass that celebrated the release of the Red Deer in 1871 (the first seven of them), even though it was considered an ecological disaster. They had no predators and spread wildly, decimating natural fauna of the country. They had to be hunted back to a controllable number.

 We continued NE to Lake Pukaki, where we could see spectacular Aoraki / Mt Cook (12,218 ft) to the north of us. Greg and Peter were amazed that the view of the mountain was this clear. They said those clouds usually obscure the view, and sure enough, the next morning we could not see it from this same spot. Aoraki is the Māori name, and was officially added to the mountain's name in 1998. 

This is the same view as in the previous photo, but without the telephoto lens, you can barely distinguish the Aoraki/Mt. Cook peak from the clouds directly above the cute chick's head. 

 We reached our destination, the hotel in Takapo, at the base of Lake Takapo. Here's the view from our hotel. 

We had time before dinner, so I walked across the road and down to the Church of Good Shepard, right on the lake. Just beyond it was this Sheep Dog Memorial. In the 19th century, Scottish shepherds came to work on the pastoral runs here. "The high country could not have been farmed successfully without the border collies they brought with them."

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Our hotel room had an upstairs bedroom, with full kitchen and living room downstairs. Pretty fancy.