Our New Zealand Adventure: 9/21/08

Pink Clouds

Just wanted to sneak in one more picture of some of the flora in our neighborhood. This is Royston Hospital, a 90 second walk from our house (where i had my surgery right after arriving in Hastings.) The trees are of the genus, Prunus. Hard to appreciate from the photo but the blossoms are pale pink with darker pink centers. The trees look like pink clouds or big cotton candy trees. They are truly some of the most beautiful trees i've ever seen when in full blossom.

Garden City

In early September we flew to Christchurch, a city on the south island. Christchurch is also known as the garden city, having over 7,000 acres of gardens. This building is now a very upscale restaurant and sits on the edge of the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. http://www.ccc.govt.nz/botanicgardens/ Even in late winter, the gardens were beautiful.

Punting on the Avon River

We went "punting" while in Christchurch. From Wikipedia: A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole. A punt should not be confused with a gondola, which is propelled with an oar rather than poled. So there you have it; you can see a bit of the punt in the lower right corner of the picture.

Tranz Scenic Railway

While in Christchurch we wanted to take the (highly over-rated, but-we're-glad-we-did-it) Tranz Scenic Railway that goes from Christchurch on the east coast over the mountains and through the farms to Greymouth, a quaint little town on the west coast. This stop was Arthur's Pass, elevation about 2400 feet and it was snowing like crazy. It was a bit chilly in this open air car!

Waimakariri River

The train follows the Waimakariri River

( Y mac a ree ree)

for much of the journey. In some places it was a beautiful shade of turquoise when the sun was out.

Waimakariri River

Stillwater, New Zealand

The train stopped here for a few minutes. The name will only mean something to family, who will remember that Dad went to college in Stillwater, OK.

Tasman Sea Beach

Just another lovely New Zealand beach. This photo is looking south, back toward Greymouth, which is just beyond that out cropping of rocks. Surprisingly rough seas and obviously quite rocky.

Pancake Rocks

After we arrived in Greymouth we rented a little tin can and drove north along the coast to an area called Punakaiki where we explored the famous Pancake Rocks and Blowhole. Sorry, no pictures of the blowholes. They were interesting but not very photogenic. Geologists are not sure how these rocks were formed, but they do resemble a stack of pancakes and cover quite an extensive area.