Drive

On the West Coast of South Island, where the train deposited us, we had a plan to head north, up to "Pancake Rocks." More on that later; I have to sort out all the pictures we took once we got there!

However, the drive to and from Punakaiki (aka Pancake) was astonishing. The road hugged the edge of mountains and nearly touched the Tasman Sea at points. Gorgeous.

The weather was variable, at times dreary, but the landscape so dramatic that dreary weather almost complemented it. And Vic took a pic of our rental car, the first car of four scheduled for this vacation.

Train

We got up early to board the Tranzalpine Train, a cross-island journey through the Southern Alps. Pics taken from our seat feature blur and imagery from the window. Pics taken at stops aren't as pretty as some of those that are just =too= blurry! There were breathtaking panoramas of milky azure rivers running through lush green valleys, glacier-scarred, yellow-beige cliffs in the background.

Vic loves trains, so the pic that appears to be of a signal box is actually, to the right, of two rusted-out hulks of steam engines. (He especially loves steam engines.)

Christchurch Addendum

Vic took a couple of nice pics of Christchurch, so I wanted to include them.

Christchurch Museum

We toured the Christchurch Museum, where we were encouraged to "go for it" as far as taking pictures is concerned. There were children climbing all over many of the displays and, I have to say, I kind of liked that. The 'hands off' direction that is typically given in U.S. museums was absent, yet nothing was getting broken.

The moa skeleton is a baby moa, next to an adult-moa leg bone. The moa are extinct as a result of human predation. The other skeleton is of an elephant seal. Many, many seals reside in offshore NZ waters.

The intricately carved wood is from the fronts of canoes. No kidding.

A number of preserved Maori items were crafted from jade. I am SO coming home with loads of greenstone trinkets (greenstone is what it's called here).

The buggy labeled 'Christchurch Hokitika' sums up the part of our journey that begins today: Tranzalpine Train to Hokitika.

Botanical Gardens

We took a walk through Christchurch's lovely botanical gardens, within which the museum sits. The rose garden was spectacular, as were some other highlights.

Christchurch

The trip over the Pacific was =not= 22 hours; that was the total of both flights, one to the West Coast and another to NZ. The NZ leg was 12.5 hours--and that was plenty long enough.

We tried to sleep on the plane, and I ended up 'half' sleeping for about 6 hours (even with a sleeping pill). So we decided to stay awake until nighttime once we were on the ground.

At Auckland, arrival 5am, we walked about 0.75 mile--no exaggeration--from the Air New Zealand (ANZ) international-arrivals terminal to the ANZ domestic-departures terminal. We flew from Auckland, North Island, to Christchurch, South Island, getting here before 9am. We walked all over Christchurch, so I think our total for today has to be up near 4 or 5 miles on foot. My heels hurt.

We had lunch at a lovely little pub on Litchfield called His Lordship's. Vic had fish & chips, and I had a lamb shepherd's pie.

Wine Country

Just got an email message yesterday from a wine-recommendation service to which I subscribe, called Snooth. Coincidentally, this week, the message was about New Zealand pinots. Ya gotta love that.

The picture comes from the Snooth website. Read up on the pinots here:
http://www.snooth.com/articles/wine-reviews/new-zealand-pinot-noir/2/

BTW, we're delayed at Boston Logan. But having a 6-hour San Francisco layover makes this low-stress.