| First up
was the Inter Island ferry from Wellington to Picton |
|
The ferry goes up Queen Charlotte's
Sound to Picton |
This is our route map for the trip
- a clockwise circle of the north part of the South Island;
Picton-Kaikoura-Christchurch-Greymouth-Westport-Nelson-Picton |
Intentionally blank |
|
Picton, straight off the Inter Island
ferry |
|
It was cold -- for us, anyway |
Water view from the park |
Hill view from the park |
|
Roger & Rex on a different kind of
see saw |
In an aquarium there is a preserved
giant squid |
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|
Driving from Picton to Kaikoura |
|
green meadows with snow capped
peaks |
same |
We'd never seen ocean water with
snowy mountains in the background until now |
|
Seal colony near Kaikoura |
|
|
|
Just lying on the rocks at the side
of the road |
basking in the last rays of the
day's sun |
there was nothing stopping us
getting really close |
|
Kaikoura - nice scenery and the home of
whale watching in NZ |
|
Sunrise at the motel |
Morning view outside our motel |
a pretty town |
|
the car park at the whale
watch centre |
which has a walkway at the side of
the beach |
the beach featured quite a sharp
drop & dark sand |
|
Roger & Rex on the beach |
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One of the highlights of the holiday was a 3
hour whale watch cruise; the photos don't look like much
because not much of the whale can be seen in the water, but
these are 16 meter sperm whales and only about 1/3 of their body can be
seen at the surface |
|
first sight of a sperm whale spouting |
spouting - again |
and starting the
deep dive for more food |
|
We also saw an albatross ... |
... a black albatross ... |
and dusky dolphins |
|
the family enjoyed the trip |
and so did Neil |
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|
After that it was off to Christchurch |
|
NZ is famous for sheep |
maybe for this sheep? |
... and deer for venison
|
|
Christchurch has the Antarctic
Centre; these are not real penguins |
this is Rex on a slide
made of ice |
Roger on the same |
|
it was really cold; -17oC |
didn't seem to worry Rex, though |
this is from
Christchurch aquarium; must have been Neil in a past life |
| On the way from
Christchurch to the west coast Roger -- a fan of the Simpsons
-- got a
surprise |
|
He was thrilled to find their home
town |
and we found that they patronise
... |
... this restaurant |
| We stopped to
experience the snow because we don't get that chance too often ...
|
|
a Gamble Family snow fight |
Intentionally blank |
These folk had no
choice about the snow |
| On the way from
Christchurch to the west coast via Arthur's Pass which featured
great scenery all the way |
|
taken through the front windscreen |
we drove until it was dark |
with scenery all
the way |
| When it was dark we
stopped at Hotel Bealey, just short of Arthur's Pass, which
was a pleasant surprise |
|
the view from our room |
ready to check out (we had just
de-iced the car) |
view from the
main hotel [looking in the other direction] |
|
Rex loves NZ birds & was thrilled
... |
... with these wire statues of the
extinct Moa |
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| We kept on driving
towards the west coast with more scenery & surprises on the way |
|
the first was an ice waterfall;
maybe no big deal to folk from the US, but a novelty for us |
this viaduct took 3 years & many
millions to build |
but the big
surprise were these Kea birds; there were two at the hotel, but
we didn't get a photo; here is one near the viaduct |
|
there were several but we only got
a photo of one |
Shanty Town, near Greymouth, shows what it was like in the old days |
OK, this is not a
good photo, but it is a Weka that was at Shanty Town & Rex was
very excited to see it |
|
We stayed that night at Barrytown, a
small place just north of Greymouth on the west coast |
|
we stayed in a B&B that looked out to
this view |
and this time the sheep decided to
show us their butts |
intentionally
blank |
|
North of Barrytown & south of Westport is an
area called Pancake Rocks. There is soft rock
between layers of limestone; the soft rock erodes faster than
limestone giving a pancake effect |
|
Rex is sitting on a sample of the
pancake rocks |
the rocks extend through this part
of the coastline |
and give some interesting effects |
|
Self titled photo |
Neil & Usa |
there is also a "swell pool"
leading to a blow hole; but the tide was too low when we were
there for the blow hole to operate |
|
Rex - an angel? |
Or something else? |
From Barrytown to Nelson we didn't
see much - or maybe we had enough photos? At least we saw
this. |
|
The last place we stayed was Nelson
where we visited a small zoo |
|
... where we saw otters ... |
... llamas ... |
... miniature horses ... |
|
... odd chickens (Usa thought they
looked like they were wearing pants) ... |
... peahens & ducks ... |
... fed sheep ... |
|
.... and met a galah that talked to
Neil ... |
.. it kept on saying "asshole" to
him ... |
our last photo, driving from Nelson
back to Picton |
