Christchurch NZ

Our very last place to visit and it's so English! We spent time in the Botanical Gardens which were just starting to show the early signs of summer blooms to come and were very impressed with the cleanliness and general tidiness of the place...not a piece of litter evident and everything in its place.

In the afternoon we visited the Art Gallery which was extremely interesting and innovative, with contemporary work on show from NZ's best.

Well, tomorrow at 7.00am we fly to Sydney and it really has to go some for us to rate it alongside this place....we'll see!!!

Aoraki/Mount Cook MZ

This trip wasn't really on the agenda, but it was too close and we were soon convinced by our B&B hostess Joan(thanks Joan!) that even though it was further to drive, we would be better to walk part way up the Hooker Valley at the base of Mount Cook than do a walk around the Lake Tekapo area. How right she was !!

The scenery was stunning and the weather equally good as we approached the area. Fantastic blue skies and snow-capped mountains together with beautiful lakes make for the best scenery ever in our book.

Drove up to Mount Cook village and proceded up the Hooker Valley to the song of skylarks and it wasn't too long before we were sighting Falcons and what looked like NZ redpolls and linnets.

Lunched at the top of the valley beneath the majestic slopes of Aoraki(it means cloud-piercer in Maori..so much more apt!), with cotton wool clouds spilling over the adjacent mountains..........ahhh bliss!!!

Left the area at around 4.00pm to drive on to Christchurch, our last destination in NZ(sob.sob!!)

We could easily relocate here if it weren't such a long way from family & friends. We've both loved our time in NZ... the climate is brilliant and the Kiwis so friendly and we only hope that the rest of our trip goes as well as the last 6 weeks. We'd urge anyone who has half a mind to visit NZ to do it!!

DunedinNZ (The Otago Peninsula)

Onwards and back up the east coast towards Christchurch(our final NZ destination), we had rather wanted to see the Penguins(Yellow -Eyed variety)..and what better destination than the Otago Peninsula? Booked a tour with'Penguin Place' which was OK but didn't get much of a view as the Penguins are currently laying eggs and each pair in this conservation area have man-made nesting boxes. Not a lot of movement going on as they sit on nests awaiting the inevitable hatching time. Still' it gave us some valuable information re their habits. We decided to have a walk down to the local coast-line and having climbed to the top of an old volcano vent, polled on down to the beach.
We had only been down there 5 mins when I noticed some movement in the far distance. A penguin waddling from the sea, up the beach to be greeted by his mate, who then proceeded on down to the sea to fish. They swap duties every now and then (6-12hrs), until the brooding and feeding of their young is complete!! We felt very priveliged to witness this and sat riveted to the spot with our binoculars 'glued to' our eyeballs for a further hour whence the whole ritual was repeated by other couples 3 or 4 times.

Great views of grey fur seals and Sea-lions were also had.