Christchurch, Lewis Pass, & Nelson, New Zealand

After a long pause, let us resume the traveling story. To remind you, we last left our heros (that would be us) on the North Island of New Zealand. After a bit of a sketchy night in a hotel near the airport in Auckland, culminating in someone trying to open our hotel door with a key (thank goodness we had the chain lock on!), we flew out early in the morning for the South Island of New Zealand!

Arriving fairly early on Saturday morning, we spent the day in Christchurch. Much of Christchurch was destroyed by the 2011 earthquake, and as a result, there are significantly fewer sights to see. After an excellent farmer's market visit, we explored downtown a bit. There is still a huge area that you cannot enter post-earthquake, called the red zone. One of the more interesting sights is the first "mall" to reopen after the earthquake- it's a strip mall where each shop is made out of a shipping container! Much faster to build than real buildings, this was a way to help restore morale after the earthquake. Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy most of the day, so we had to find indoor activities.

We visited a craft brewery where we got to try a New Zealand tradition- a burger with beets on it! It's actually pretty good. Finally, we went to the incredibly interesting (and free!) Air Force Museum, with several restored aircraft and lots of eerily lifelike displays. This was at the height of our broken camera phase, so feel free to be very impressed at the pictures we managed to take without being able to see what we were taking pictures of!

The next day, the weather improved, so we stopped at the beautiful Christchurch Botanic Gardens. Being spring in New Zealand, we were just in time for all of the azaleas to be in full bloom in every color imaginable, and it was gorgeous! We also saw two different types of ducks we had never seen before, one of which sounded like it had recently swallowed a kazoo.

After our visit to the gardens, we got on our way headed up to the northern tip of the island. This route took us through a mountain pass called Lewis Pass, and it was simply stunning. We stopped frequently to take pictures, and also to give the line of cars behind us a chance to pass- they drive like MANIACS in New Zealand! Other than the crazy drivers, it was very peaceful in the pass, except for the cow that mooed so loudly at us while taking pictures that I jumped.

Our final destination after Lewis Pass was Nelson, at the northern tip of the South Island. This was a cute little town, although the best part by far in my opinion was the free chocolate pudding each night at our hostel. It wasn't what Americans would call pudding- it was more like a chocolate cake with liquid chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. Adam's favorite part may have been any of the several microbreweries we visited while we were there. As far as sights go, the highlights were the public gardens and a very odd church that had been started in the gothic style but finished in an art deco style; it just looked bizarre as a result.


One of the interesting facts we learned upon arrival to New Zealand is that almost 75% of the plants in New Zealand are unique to New Zealand and not found anywhere else in the world. One of my favorites was the "pink toon tree", where the leaves start out pink in the spring. There are also several bird species not found anywhere else; it was really interesting to see all of the different types. The best was the "tui". It looks fairly plain, but as far as I can tell, it was the inspiration for R2D2. It makes the craziest noises! *Credit to "jezkemp" for the video!

 

 

Stay tuned for the next installment documenting the rest of our journey throughout New Zealand, and more pictures coming soon!