We arrived in Christchurch in the wee hours of the morning, concerned that we wouldn’t manage to get our 1. hire car or 2. motel room. But everyone was very kind and helpful and soon we were tucked up safe and sound in our bed by 2am.
This city is very neat and ordered and just a little bit boring, but feels very safe.
We commenced our wandering around the groovy bits of this town by heading south and cruising over the Dyers Pass and stopping for refreshments near the top. Then a quick duck back to pick up my computer after a techie did a “bush mechanic” job on the power lead and got the charger functioning again. Following that we wandered over the Summit Road around through some spectacular parts of an old crater rim. It was a feast of big hills and wide views, but severely lacking any lovely trees. A definite deficit of arbourous growths. We are unsure if it was always like that but because people are doing lots of re-planting of native vegetation we feel that the bald mountains may well be a result of over enthusiastic Euro-clearing for sheep farming.
Nevertheless the wonderful views were quite lovely.
We watched a windswept wedding party on the wild hills of Godley Head as the pretty bridesmaids posed for pictures against a backdrop of rugged mountains.
(Click the pics to make them big)
Are you two no longer capable of being in Australia?
Enjoy. We spent a happy 6 weeks in New Zealand, almost 4in the South Island, campervan all the way. Loved it. People are really friendly. So glad Christchurch is rebuilding, we were there just after the quake.
Have fun x
Good to see you’ve begun blogging your NZ adventures already. Looking forward to much vicarious sightseeing.