Where in the World is Saura

Mom and Dad arrived safely in Christchurch Monday morning as Alan and I eagerly waited at the wrong terminal. Luckily we realized our mistake quickly and ran over to the international terminal for a long awaited reunion. We were so focused on just spending time together on the first day that we forgot to take any pictures, but we have since made up for that.

Monday turned into a lovely day, sunny and warm. We walked around the neighborhood and fed the ducks at the park in the morning, then took a picnic lunch to the botanic gardens in the afternoon along with Al’s mom. Mom and Dad were troopers and managed to stay awake til about 10PM Monday night. It helped that it doesn’t get dark until 9:30 or 10 o’clock, so they didn’t even realize how late it really was. Tuesday was Mom’s first shopping day, so we strolled around the shops downtown while Dad and Al mucked around in a few music shops. We went out to dinner that night with Al’s dad, which was very good, then went to a pub for drinks and some live music.

That brings us to Wednesday when we packed up the van and took our first road trip out of town to Lake Coleridge. The scenery was even more striking than our past visits. The hills were greener, many of the shrubs were blooming with bright yellow flowers and soft pink wild roses. Dad chatted with a woman who has come to Lake Coleridge for 40 years and she said the area has had unusually high rainfalls and it certainly showed.

We camped in a little cove of shrubs that sheltered us from the winds, so we were able to relax and enjoy the very peaceful site. I know Mom and Dad were really awed by it all. Its just a unique landscape that you certainly don’t see in the southern United States. Its equally as spectacular at night since there is no light pollution whatsoever and the sky is filled with layer upon layer of twinkling stars. Before we turned in for the night, Dad, Al and I went out and did alittle stargazing. At the time there were a few clouds blocking the Milky Way and the Southern Cross, but Dad was amazed nonetheless. Of course within ten minutes of him going to bed the sky completely cleared and the entire night sky, Milky Way and all, came into crystal clear view. It is really a sight to behold and hopefully we’ll get other chances while travelling around the South Island to view such a magnificent starry night.

We returned to Christchurch Thursday and rested. The folks are holding up really well despite travelling through so many time zones, but I think they were alittle tired at this point. Dad finally got to watch some cricket and I did my best to answer his slew of questions while Al was out playing tennis. That night we treated Mom and Dad to their first Kiwi fish and chips dinner, a longstanding New Zealand tradition.

Well, that brings us to today. We did alittle more shopping and ran some errands to prepare for our camping trip to the Abel Tasman. We’re going to the Saturday markets tomorrow morning and we have a few things planned with Al’s family the rest of the day. Then we leave for Nelson on Sunday, so we’ll share those pictures and stories when we get back next week.

Kia Kite!

We are sitting in a cafe surrounded by a wireless hotspot, in Twizel of all places. The town does have an interesting history. It was founded in 1966 as a construction town to build the dam and hydro system in the area, and was slated for destruction upon the completion of the project in 1985. To the protests of the town, it was saved and acts as a stopoff spot for tourists seeking the majesty of Mt Cook.

We began just a few days ago, and spent our first night at Lake Coleridge. I liked it even better the second time, and we had the pleasure of viewing a night sky that had been previously obscured by a full moon. The stars were so amazing, and bright, and numerous. We’ve never seen the Milky Way in such detail, and there were millions more stars than I’ve ever been able to view in the States. With this amazing view came extremely strong winds, which continued to the morning. We quickly packed up and headed off. Oh, and we finally christened our van. I knew her name would come to us once we got on the road, and her name is now Betty. Good ole Betty hasn’t let us down.

       

Our next stop, after making lunch at a picnic stop at the Rakia Gorge, was Timaru. That stay was fairly uneventful. It is on a bay and the town seems to shut down about five o’clock. This is where we spent our second night before moving on again. We went to Lake Tekapo and met up with the other caravans and charter busses at the Church of the Good Shepherd, touted as the most photographed church in New Zealand. On a clear day a window at the back of the church frames Mt Cook over the lake. Unfortunatley it was cloudy and we missed out on that one.
   

We thought briefly about staying in Tekapo for the night. There is an observatory there and a company does star gazing tours. We really wanted to do this, but it was expensive, and since it was overcast we decided it may not be worth it. Best to experience somthing like this on a crisp and clear night. Plus, we figured that Dad would love to do this, so we’ll just take you when you come over. Since the star gazing was out, there didn’t seem to be enough left to do to get us through the day, so we kept on trucking to Lake Pukaki. There was a free campsite by the lake waiting for us there.

I’ll just throw this one up on the blog and continue in a new entry, just to split things up. I also want to apologize about the small picture size. We haven’t been able to figure out how to manage them since the site that hosts out blog changed the software, but we’ll get them changed as soon as possible.

Al wanted to get some pics of our trip to Lake Coleridge up before we leave for Wellington tomorrow, so here's another update.  Over Valentine's Day we decided to go on a short camping trip to test out the van ... [Continue reading this entry]