On the way to Christchurch

 We left Kurow this morning and took the scenic route to Christchurch. A little bit longer but not as boring. We stopped at a small place called Waitake and came across a market in the town park. Lots of fresh produce and a few crafty things.

Beautiful silo art in Waitake.

In Christchurch they have trams doing a circular route through the CBD with the driver providing a commentary for tourists. We got on, having been told by someone that it was only $10, but it actually cost $40!!! Couldn’t really exit the tram at that point. We went to the Botanic Gardens by tram, but that was a typical (by now) NZ disappointment. One sign showing where the visitor’s centre was, we followed the path, didn’t come anywhere near such a place. No other helpful sign. So we gave up. Not much helpful signage re names of things and most were English country garden type of flowers in the part we walked. Our ANBG is stunningly good by comparison.

A couple of nice bits of street art in Christchurch.

The earthquakes that devastated the city happened in 2010 and 2011. The city still has blocks of empty land, some being built on, and some half finished buildings that have come to a standstill because there’s no money to complete them. A case in point is the Cathedral, whose spire was damaged. So there’s a construction zone around it, and some painted facades of what they hope to restore. But it seems to be very tired and generally hopeless. Some injection of life and hope and vitality is needed!

Honeywell is here too!

Part of the mural on the wall outside our hotel room. Hard to believe we’re going home tomorrow!

Geology trek near Kurow, starting at Duntroon.

 I went on my own around this self drive tour just out of Kurow starting from a place called Duntroon, which they tell me was the original Duntroon and the people then moved to Canberra and bought land on which the Duntroon RMC was established. Anyway it was a 35km drive with about 10 geological sites. In typical NZ fashion , there were signs, but you had usually passed the site before you registered it and I got good at reversing!

The first and last sites were Māori rock art. Not like our aboriginal rock art at all. Looked more like charcoal drawings and some were recognisable as ships so it is thought they date back to when the European came, and earlier. Not much information given and I had the impression that they weren’t taken much notice of and then people belatedly started to realise that this is important heritage stuff and much background has been lost. 

There were 3 fossil sites, quite accessible, mainly of whales . You can see that the information presented didn’t really say much. 

This was the Anatini fossil site and it is actually famous for being the location of Aslan’s camp in the Narnia film!

Some typical rock formations. Often limestone or sandstone that has weathered and formed weird shapes, but also as land uplifted some metamorphic rock as well.

Elephant rocks, only because someone thought they looked like a herd of elephants.

Some interesting fossils in the museum. 

Because you needed to see a flock of Canadian geese swimming just above the Waitaki hydro dam!

Aoraki/Mt Cook

 We left Alexandra at 7am and had breakfast at Omarama on the way to Mt Cook. Overall good experience but somewhat disappointing.

Entrance to the Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park visitor centre. Excellent displays of history, and the usual books on flora and fauna, all of which were field guide type of things and cost a lot. There were no brochures on common plants and birds.

One of the most frustrating things about today was the lack of clear maps - not just road maps and road signage, but maps of potential walks and their signage. And you could buy or download a map but it wasn’t clear and it was tiny. 

Another frustration was the lack of parking! We drove to the start of a walk and had to drive and park about a kilometre down the road on the roadside. We think that the focus of the Department of Conservation is eliminating feral pests - namely rodents, possums and cats - to the detriment of providing good tourist facilities and education about conservation. So different from Aus! Very poor tourist facilities. Had to queue for loos everywhere! Nowhere to buy food there. 

This is a beautiful stained glass window in the visitor’s centre.

We decided to do the Kea Point walk, because it took us to the end of a glacier and you could see Mt Cook. You can see the gravel path - not easy to walk on at all. It was 1.7km to the Point, but you had to go back and it was a very hot day.

This is Mt Sefton, with the snow field in the middle being the Huddleston Glacier. It isn’t very long anymore and all the glaciers are melting at a fast rate.

Panorama with Mt Sefton on the left and Mt Cook in the centre. The big grey thing in the middle is a glacial moraine left by the melting glacier coming down from the left, with the lake just in front of the view.

Some pretty wildflowers. There also seem to be a lot of lupins and hollyhocks which are not native. Some shrubs but nothing interesting. Lacking the amazing variety of plants we have in Aus.

A rare bit of hillside with shrubs on it, some about to flower. But usually there is a smattering of shrubs and just grass. 

Our bnb in Kurow. From the mid 1800’s. Lovely place, with chickens running rampant!

Said chickens! More of these than any native birds!

Guess what? They have Patterson’s Curse, only bigger and brighter than at home! 

Another pretty flower! We had dinner at the pub and then went for a short walk along the Kurow Wetlands, which were quite dry. Hoping to see some birds, no success. We could hear some, but they were good at hiding.

Alexandra

 Easy day today. Went for a 5ish km walk along the Roxburgh lake, then did a bit of a drive to Lake Roxburgh Village, then had to stop at Rob’s farm for some more ice cream!

The water is so green, deep and flowing fast. (Didn’t take my camera so took a photo of the photo on my phone)

For my Tid friends - had to take a photo of this sign! This was on a rise on the walk. 

Really interesting striations in the rocks. Lots of quartz, so not surprising that gold was found around here.

Drove towards Roxburgh to find this amazing cafe for lunch. We didn’t pick our own cherries though, but we did buy some beautiful apricots and cherries.

This cafe had an incredible garden and I tried very hard to get a picture of a bumblebee!

This is the place with the amazing ice cream!

Tomorrow we head to Kurow but will try to get up to Mt Cook on the way because the weather will be better than the next day.