Overview
On a ten-day trip, we decided to see as much of the south island as possible. We drove over 3000 kilometers (over 1850 miles), seeing many different biomes. We noticed lots of one-lane bridges, crude "wicked" vans, roads that were well-kept and not many people on them. The population of New Zealand is less than four million for the entire country. There is a earthquake fault line that runs through the southern island, the place where the Pacific plate meets the Australian plate and home to very high mountains. There is an election in March 2016 to allow the people to choose a new flag or retain the same one with the union jack.
On a ten-day trip, we decided to see as much of the south island as possible. We drove over 3000 kilometers (over 1850 miles), seeing many different biomes. We noticed lots of one-lane bridges, crude "wicked" vans, roads that were well-kept and not many people on them. The population of New Zealand is less than four million for the entire country. There is a earthquake fault line that runs through the southern island, the place where the Pacific plate meets the Australian plate and home to very high mountains. There is an election in March 2016 to allow the people to choose a new flag or retain the same one with the union jack.
Christchurch
The destruction from the 2011 earthquake is still very evident in Christchurch. There are many vacant lots downtown and in a few places, the rubble remains. While we were in New Zealand, Christchurch experienced a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. We were on the other side of the island at the time. New Zealand has about 150,000 earthquakes yearly. It sits on the Pacific rim of fire, one of the earth's two major earthquake zones. While we were in Christchurch, we felt a quake that measured over 4 on the Richter scale, and there were several other shocks in the city while we were traveling the countryside. We toured the Canterbury Museum and the Botanic Gardens. Both were terrific. |
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Akaroa We took a day to drive to Akaroa, originally a French fishing village. It is built on the rim of an extinct volcano. Part of the side of the volcano disintegrated and allowed the Pacific Ocean to wash in, creating a beautiful harbor with steep surrounding hills. We took a wildlife cruise and spotted the world's smallest dolphin, the Hector Dolphin, and the world's smallest penguin, the white-flippered penguin. |
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On the road to Wanaka Most of this day was spent driving from Christchurch to Wanaka. We stopped in the morning to see Selwyn, a Kiwi we met in Qingdao. Within an hour, we had a flat tire, and that took part of our late morning and early afternoon to repair in Geraldine. We drove through two passes. in the MacKenzie Country. The mountains rose high on both sides of the road at times. We saw two glacier-fed lakes that were an amazing bright blue color. Some of the landscapes in this part of New Zealand ended up in the Lord of the Rings movies. |
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Milford Sound Milford Sound is located in the Fiordland National Park, which is itself located in the New Zealand World Heritage Area. We took a two-hour cruise of the Sound, going out to the Tasman Sea and back again. |
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The West Coast
From Wanaka to Haast, the road follows the Haast River into Mount Aspiring National Park. We stayed in Haast overnight just before going to the glaciers. There are two actively receding glaciers in New Zealand, the Fox Glacier and the Franz Josef Glacier.
Fox Glacier |
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Franz Josef Glacier |
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Hokitika |
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Punakaiki Paparoa National Park has really interesting rock formations called pancake rocks. There are also blowholes in the rocks which boom when a strong wave rushes through them. Through a layering-weathering process called stylobedding, the rocks have taken on the form of stacked pancakes. We also took a hike called the Truman Track which allowed us to see water pools of life and sea stars, since we went at low tide. |
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Buller Gorge Swingbridge
This is New Zealand's longest swingbridge at 110 meters. It connects the main road to the epicenter of the 1929 earthquake in the region.
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Nelson My Lonely Planet guidebook says that Nelson soaks up some of New Zealand's sunniest weather, but not while we were there.. It rained every day. We toured the Cathedral in the middle of town, went to the Sutter Art Gallery, and toured the Wearable Art and Classic Car exhibition. We went horseback riding in Abel Tasman National Park. It was not a follow the leader horse team, and Emlie was thrown off her horse. She was riding Happy Feet and I had Gandalf. |
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More Views These are pictures that are from around the country and perhaps didn't fit into the topics or places above. We ran into a wedding party taking pictures somewhere north of Wanaka. The last pictures were taken on a hiking trail between Wanaka and Haast. Two boys around ages 5-7, sitting on the edge of a ledge. We expressed our concern to their father. He was more worried that they might throw rocks that would hit someone on the trail below. |
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