December
11th December 2003
After waking up in the Chateau on the Park hotel we decided to take a walk through Hagley Park into town. Hagley Park is a 200 acre park in the middle of Christchurch and features a magnificent botanical gardens. The first thing that struck us was the size of the trees.
Our first order of business was to buy something to sleep on. Marisa and I have already determined that we will do a lot of camping while we are in New Zealand so we purchased some thick camp mattresses. These will do while we wait for our bed to arrive. Gabriel already has a bed as I purchased one for myself when I first rented the house in November.
We found the matresses we wanted at the Warehouse store in South City. We also bought some bedding and had Sushi for lunch. There seem to be more sushi stores than hamburger stores in Christchurch.
--Brook
12th December 2003
We are settling into our odd new life. We have no funiture so we sit on the floor. We have a television which is conveniently also sitting on the floor. We are gradually purchasing all the food, pots, pans and other necessities we need. I took the family for a drive to Lyttleton and on to Governors bay. Everyone was astonished at the views and Marisa was more than a little terrifed during the drive around numerous narrow switchbacks along the hillsides.
While the drive is terrifying to all but these fearless Kiwis the views really are spectacular.
--Brook
13th December 2003
We went for a picnic to Castle hill reserve today. This is amazing. I'll put some images here later. Castle hill is a paddock full of natural standing standing stones. It is very popular with climbers as there are about 250 documented climbs there for these maniacs. We climbed to the top of hill where we had a snow covered mountain on one side of us and some spectacular rocks on the other. We had sandwiches and golden kiwi fruits.
After lunch we went for a drive into Arthurs Pass. Marisa and Gabriel were as impressed with Otira Gorge as I was the first time I saw it.
This picture shows a place where a waterfall has been diverted over the road. A photograph never really captures the scale here but if you click on this picture you can see a larger version. This road takes you through the Alps to the West Coast (Westland).
Here is another picture of the Gorge looking up from the car park. That's me in the lower foreground.
There are two cheeky Keas who live here. Keas are Alpine parrots. If they get to your car they can strip of all rubber seals and plastic trim in about 30 mintes. They are completely fearless and I spent ten minutes once chasing one backward and forward across the roof of my car when he as trying to strip the radio aerial of its black plastic end.
On a rainy day water pours out of these mountains in huge waterfalls.
If you click on this picture you can see a larger version.
We wound our weary way home through the beautiful landscape. Marisa made us stop so she could pick Lupins growing wild on the side of the road. She set up a beautiful display of red, orange, blue and purple lupin flowers on our mantle piece when we got home.
At some stage we want to drive through Aurthur's Pass to the West Coast. My son and I particularly want to walk on Franz Joseph glacier.
The picture to the left here is a Kea. I'm trying to get a picture of one flying. Despite the rather dull colouring compared to Australian parrots they have bright red beneath their wings.
--Brook
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