On to Christchurch, NZ

View of City of Christchurch from hotel

Boarding the Jet for the flight to Christchurch

Yesterday morning, after a buffet breakfast at the Peppers, we were again off to the Queenstown Airport. Boarding another New Zealand Air jet we took the 45 minute flight to Christchurch, also on South Island.

There, we took our time getting through the airport, actually daring to purchase a few souvenirs. Then we picked up a rental car, for which we had to pass a short Drivers test at the rental car desk.  We passed (lucky, or our trip could have ended today). We left the terminal during torential downpour of rain, with zero rental personnel to give clues on how the car operated. Miraculously we figured out where the GPS plugged in, and how to generally run stuff ; i.e., what buttons to poke &/or flip. Whew!

New Zealanders, like Brits, drive on the left side of the road. I quickly I lost my jitters on discovering Kiwi roads are as modern as those in California. Wide roads, which unlike Scotland or Ireland have no ancient stone curbs, short walls or non-existent shoulders to collide with. Hurrah!

Aw... I dug in before I remembered a photo might be nice.

It wasn't too late in the day when we arrived at our Christchurch hotel, but it was still pouring and we were not in the mood for tramping about during a flood. We joked & reckoned our main event of the day would be dinner.  Damned if we weren't correct.

If you care, din-din was Coffee Glazed Venison with Juniper Berry Crust, Orange & Kumara Brioche Pudding with Red Currant Jus, and every extra side dish one it occurred to us to order. In our defense, this was our big event to the day.

 The following morning, there's a mercy, the rains had ceased. We only had to waltz next door from our hotel to a shop strewn plaza. There we bought tickets for a tram tour of Christchurch - £23 NZ each.

1921 Tram entering the greenhouse-ish plaza

Ila enjoying her tram ride

 

The conductor was our driver and our tour guide. He told us all about the tram, which was a sea of wood on the inside. The tram had a cute trick - when reversing direction, you only had to stand and flip your seat back to face in the opposite direction. You also could face seats so you faced your companions or else kept them to your back. Handy for shunning the underclasses!


First up on the tram tour was the Angelican Christchurch Cathedral, pretty much taken out by New Zealand's 2011 earthquake. The cathedral's towering spire, that stood alongside the main body of the cathedral is no more. I understand the church remains unrepaired as the locals fuss over whether it would better to repair or just replace the whole shebang. The fight has gone on since 2012 or so, so stay tuned.

The earthquake damaged Angelican Cathedral

Silver Gulls

The Christchurch downtown appeared to me much like any other downtown in a large city. That was just as well, for I had my eye out for birds. The most interesting I saw were these snooty, ikle gulls with flashy red galoshes and stylishly matching red bills.

Combo: bird and city scenery

This was my umpteenth time riding on a 'on off' tram or bus in some 'exotic-to-me' city. I love the on off concept. we used it to get off a block or so from the Canterbury Museum.

Canterbury Museum

The Canterbury Museum is a combo museum, containing natural history, cultural history, botany, and everything else a mind might wish to absorb. The study of New Zealand wildlife, such as the giant Moa birds held my attention.

The Maori hunted the Moas into extinction, shockingly they didn't learn to do so from Europeans

Maori art work and on right, an ancient Maori canoe

The museum also had historical artifacts on non-native New Zealanders as well, which I found surprising. There was a little town set up with streets and stores, that could be entered and examined.

An old fashioned New Zealand town set up in the Museum

Me, being me, I was most interested in the little toy store

Loved the teeny wienie china tea sets

The fetching little horses

And the huge doll house, admired by the little girl & toy shop clerk

I hunted around the museum until I found what I was most looking forward to - in a creepy sort of way - the typical museum 'hall of dead & stuffed' animals, in this case, it was stuffed birds.

Hall of Birds - devoid of others, save for 'moi'

Still hoping to see a live penguin sometime during this trip

The ceiling of the hall of birds, features a gigantic artistic x-ray of a penguin

 The main display at Canterbury Museum just now is 'Arctic Voices' about life at the northern pole.

Looking down on the entire 'Arctic Voices' panorama

Faces of the Arctic

Little quiz - on the right -  I took, on Arctic wildlife

More Arctic wildlife - Polar Bear

After our leisurely tour of the museum, and a little whirl around the museum gift shop, I told Ila I had to do a little birding in Hagley Park which the museum sits in.

Fountain in Hagley Park, adjacent to Canterbury Museum

Song Thrush

Rather surprisingly, most of the birds I spotted there - and there weren't at this time of day, too many, were European species.

I was tickled to find a European Blackbird that had white feathers on its normally black head - partially albino I think.

partially albino European Blackbird

Can't say I was shocked that the birds in the park were all imported exotics, but oh well, I don't see Blackbirds or Song Thrushes every year. We enjoyed the tram ride back to the greenhouse plaza. There we went to a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed a simple luncheon.

Pukekos

Next we were in our rental and headed to Kaikoura. You know me - the most interesting sight along the route was pastures that held horses, cattle - and of course sheep. What caught my eye though were big flocks of Pukekos (New Zealand Swamphens). Hope I will see them again where there is a shoulder to park on so I can stop and take pictures.





Tonight we checked into our hotel and went out for a short walking tour of Kaikoura; a small town. We visited a cute little shop, chock full of local wares, where I bought a pair of merino/possum fingerless gloves. Yes, you read that right,  possum!  Marsupial Possums, originally

Super soft fingerless sheep/possum mitts

 imported from Australia are a major threat to native New Zealand birds. The possums are actively hunted and for interest (I suppose) possum fur is mixed with the merino sheep's wool for an interesting yarn. LOVE my merino sheep/possum mitts - all warm and soft as butter.
Suspect cute warm mitts will come in handy when I move up to Washington state.

Bus Tour to Milford Sound

Moon over the 'avalanche' pass, south island, New Zealand

Today started long before the sun rose. We walked a block to where we loaded onto a bus for a guided tour headed for Milford Sound. The bus was huge, comfy, with mega windows, to show off the view.

Lowland sheep for miles and miles

When the sun was up, we were agog with scenery. It started quite plain - fields and farms, with snow capped mountains looking all showy in the distance. We were told all about New Zealand sheep farming. The country is famous for having more sheep than people. The source of Manuka Honey was pointed out where the brownish trees/shrubs grew. We learned that the lowlands specialty is sheep grown for meat, and secondarily their coarse wool. The highlands specializes in Merino sheep which are famous for the best wool of all sheep breeds (arguable for some, but I'm with it).

Wild Red Deer on a hillside

We passed some wild Red Deer - not native to New Zealand, hunted for it's meat and to keep its numbers under control as there are no deer predators. But we saw far more deer - at least a thousand - Red Deer, and North American Wapiti (elk) grown for meat on the farms.

Farm of Wapiti 

European Deer Farm

Massive Takehe

There were a couple of rest stops along the way, and the first was the small town of Te Anau. I shrieked in surprise when I spotted a huge cement Takehe bird that the bus shot past so quickly I got no photo. Had to search on line for the photo on the left.  Takehe are a shore bird that was almost exterpated, but now it can be seen, wild and free in Te Anau. Alas, I saw none.

The Te Anau rest area had loads of interesting things to buy, including expensive hand knit merino sweaters (one of which boasted a photo of President Obama wearing one - his favorite sweater.


Oh, and there was a cafeteria full of yummy New Zealand foods. The Kiwis seem quite fond of little meat pasties and pies.


As God is my witness, I have no clue why I didn't just dive into one of the Venison Mushroom pies because they look scrumptious.

Our next stop was at Fjordland National Park. The mountains there were covered with snow and everyone got out for some photo opt time.

Fjordland National Park, New Zealand

I knew New Zealand had grand mountains before getting here, in fact, in my mind I imagined if I ever visited New Zealand I'd be driving high up on mountain roads being attacked by wild & crazy Kea parrots. Nope! We were in valleys but the mountains did not disappoint.

Shortly after our valley stop, the bus drove us along a dark forest that reminded me of rain forests. It was called Mirror Lake and all got off the bus to trapse down a wooden boardwalk to the edge of a marsh. 

The boardwalk ended at a marsh

New Zealand Teal

The instructions given by our bus driver guide were unclear, but I didn't care. I shot along the boardwalk thinking: DUCKS!

I shot a zillion photos and then in some sort of miracle, a male/female pair of Paradise Shelducks, put on an aerial show.

The male is white-headed

Lifers, dead ahead!

Don't know if these shots are impressive to others but they thrilled me. On finally lowering my camera, I thought, "Where did everyone go?"

I walked back up to the bus, but the bus was gone. Um... was I abandoned (Shades of Disneyland desertion circa 1969/70). I decided to walk to the far end of the boardwalk.

Mirror Lake Boardwalk

Thank heavens, when I got to the end of the boardwalk, the bus driver's assistant approached me. "Did you get nice photos," she politely asked. I nodded and looked toward the bus, that was up at this new spot on the road.

"I'm the last one back, aren't I?" I asked sounding as stupid as I felt. She was too polite to answer me, but I was the very last person back on the bus and all were waiting for her majesty, 'moi' to get her bum back in her seat. Oh. Well.

No, am not insane, they
are New Zealand Tomtits

A mile or so down the road there was a rest room stop. On birdie watch, I photographed (poorly) two birds on the building roof. Tom Tits! Lifer Score!







So suddenly I am up, on my world bird life list, by Paradise Shelducks, New Zealand Scaup, possibly Gray Teals [Update: nope on the teals] and New Zealand Tomtits. Ooooh, so far so good! Too bad giant cement birds do not count on life lists.

Forest Ferns

Mountain view out of top of bus

Then the day got slogged down. The bus stopped. In front of it was a long, long line of stopped vehicles. All were blocked by the avalanche that had much earlier in the day almost canceled the day's tours. There was nothing to do but stare out of the bus windows....

Kea Parrot

And THAT my friends is how I blew my chance at another lifer bird. You see, some passengers got off the bus, but I did not, as first of all, I am idle, and second of all, I didn't know how long we had before the bus took off and I didn't to a repeat of me being the last one back on the bus. And what did I miss? Seeing this... the parrot I've dreamt of seeing in the flesh & feather. Just before the bus finally took off (after an hour of waiting) the people in the seat across from us showed us a photo they had just taken that looked pretty much like this one above. They took the pix of one of several Keas, eating treats tossed by cars awaiting road clearance. Wild Keas are notoriously tame.

Well just SHOOT me why don't 'cha!? Have long, longed to see a Kea - famous for nibbling the rubber off of car windshield wipers, for eating the kidneys out of live sheep (eewwww!) and for other general smart birdie antics. I have got to see a live wild kea before we leave New Zealand! [Update: Rats. Maybe next time]

Not seeing Keas is a bummer of biblical proportions - for me anyway.  I had to make do with the nifty scenery we saw when we by-passed the avalanche as we continued our way south.

Finally we reached the day's end game - Milford Sound. From there we boarded a blue ship with 3 tall masts. 

Milford Sound Harbor

Everyone was starving so the first order of the afternoon was lunch on board. Then it was up to the top deck to watch for dolphins, whales, seals and hopefully, penguins. The boat soon sailed, headed towards deeper water I believed. Tall waterfalls dotted the tall, heavily treed cliffs that flanked us on 2 sides. Many waterfalls roared, mist blooming up and outward as we sailed by.

I believe the main reason I photograph scenery is to kill time while waiting for wildlife to show up. And they did show up, like the basking Southern Fur Seals.

Fat and fit Southern Fur Seals

Check out the striations on the left side of the rock they're napping on

Alas. No Yellow-eyed or Little Penguin swimming about (DAMNITALLTOHELL!), but there were lovely & playful were Bottle-nosed Dolphins.


When we pulled back into the pier, I knew the day was nearly over, reversing the journey we had earlier in the day, passing again through Te Anau and choice spots, then back to our penthouse.  Did I mention we were staying in a penthouse? Only a dozen times? Right.

 

An Alternate 'Down Under'

John, Paul, George & Ringo waving
farewell to us at the San Francisco Airport

My travel buddy, Ila & I were at the airport around 3PM for our red-eye flight to New Zealand at 11PM. There was time a plenty to exchange our American Dollars for Kiwi Pounds  and window shop. The flight was 12.25 hours for which I was awake for all but an hour - watching 4 movies enroute. Yes, I know.


On landing in Auckland, New Zealand, we got separated. I managed the IQ test, the automatic 'scan your passport route'. Ila went to the lines with live humans, and there, she got a New Zealand visa stamp. I, however, in an affront to to my person, did not get a Visa stamp. I am appalled and in deep mourning. No more automatic gates for me, I want my $#&@ visa stamp.

Straightaway, we headed to our next flight, from the North Island to the South Island. I tried to stay awake but ended up making zzzzs for 95% of the short flight. Here's a 31 second snippet of the flight to Queenstown, South Island. It was stunning how different these mountains looked in comparison to my familiar Sierras.


On landing it was interesting how although the airport was ultra modern, the disembarking was right onto the tarmac.

Auckland airport is  quite the giant & super-cool mall

Took a while for Ila and me to hit the adorable souvenir stores, candy shops and all. What caught my eye? STUFF!



Loads of laser cut wall hangings and coffee table tchotchkes.



Everything from hand lotion to soaps were either infused with manuka honey &/or festooned with kiwi birds...   

Manuka Honeyed Lanolin

Kiwis!

   
               

We live in the future!

                                                     


And what discovery in this new-to-me country most wowed me? That one could buy M&Ms and get 3 varieties all in one bag! Possibly the best  idea since polio vaccinations.,

Sadly I talked myself out of buying even one single bag of M&Ms, or any souvenir - too early in the journey.

Finally dragging ourselves away from the airport shops, we hailed a taxi. Our driver was generous of heart and gave us sight seeing tour on the way to our hotel, Peppers. For the record, the taxi cost 50NZ£.

From the hillside, in the taxi we looked over Queenstown

At the Peppers hotel, the receptionist looked at us with sad puppy eyes and told us we were not getting the lake view apartment that was booked for us. Nope. We would have to settle for instead the penthouse. No. You read that right.

We were of course upset at having to up our luxury level, and so early in our trip, but what choice did we have? Caviar over hotdogs, it was.

Now, the thing is, we left San Francisco on Tuesday and somehow we arrived in Queensland on Thursday. Not sure where or how we lost Wednesday. Maybe it fell out of the jet over Fiji. It was only 3PM (although it felt 8 PM-ish) so after settling ourselves in the penthouse, we went right back out. Taking another taxi to where we bought tickets to ride a gondola.

Bottom center of this pic is where we rose up from - um.. STEEP

Can you see how steep this gondola carries passengers? 

People bungee jump from this aerial platform. Yeah. Me neither.

At the top of the gondola ride was a complex of gift shops, restaurants and the like. I was super drawn to a lot of the stuff for sale but again, managed to control myself. The ride up to 'Bob's Peak' is all the name given for the high altitude spot. It seems to be quite a popular draw for locals as well as visitors to Queenstown. Ila and I had dinner 'up top', and while we were at it we also bought our breakfast for tomorrow, to take back with us to Peppers. South Island is an island so just as in Iceland, food, is to be had at top dollars. Good news... no tipping required in either country, so there's a break.

Once we descended back to the base of the gondola ride, we used the information phone to call for a taxi back to our hotel. While we waited, we looked at the Kiwi and Birdlife Park area. Shockingly, I declined to go in. I know! At first I had thought they had wild Kiwis there but nope, just caged ones, so I'm holding out for wild Kiwis.

Ila viewing the 'negative space' Kiwi at the park entrance

Grand birdie entrance way

After our quick peek at the first sign of Kiwi birds, we took a cab back to our penthouse and called it a long, L-O-N-G, L-O-O-N-N-G day.



Here, if you care, is a quick look around the penthouse. Please, first take off your shoes. Dirt, you know.