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| The East Coast |
| On the other end of Arthur's pass lies the city of Christchurch, known as the garden city. With a population of 300,000 it's the 3rd largest city in NZ and the biggest city on the South Island. A smallish city that's very easy to navigate, it features a nice botanical garden, a central cathedral square and a cool arts center. We indulged in being in a big city and stayed in a pleasant hostel, had some great dinners, and saw the supercool movie Memento. We also contacted our friends Frazer and Catherine in Christchurch and were invited to spend the weekend at Frazers place down south at Lake Tekapo, which was awesome!! Heading back up north, we drove to the Banks Peninsula which looks like a fist sticking out of the east coast. We spent the day in and around the French enclave town of Akaroa, walking around and taking a harbour cruise where dolphins entertained us. The Banks Peninsula is a popular vacation spot for Christchurchians because of its beauty and proximity (only 45 minutes.) |
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| Good thing Jill is so far away in this shot. We're on the edge of the botanical garden looking onto the classic buildings of the extensive arts center. |
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| Soaking up some rays on the beach of Tekapo. The water was blindingly blue. That's Frazer out in the water with the boat. |
| Check out the striking differences in terrain. The lake was an oasis amongst these arid mountains. The town is a common stop for people on their way to visit Mount Cook - the highest mountain in the country. |
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| We found a terrific (illegal) campsite outside of Akaroa well after dark and woke up to this view out the back of the van. |
| A different shot that same morning. Lots of yucca trees in the area and they seemed very out of place. |
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| This was the view from the cruise we took around Akaroa Harbour. The dolphins were the obvious highlight, but we also saw caves, penguins, and salmon and pearl farms. |
| We had a great encounter with a couple of pods of Hectors Dolphins - the smallest marine dolphins in the world. With a population of only 2000-3000, they are very endangered. They're totally wild and they swim up to the boat only because they're curious and like to play around, not because they're fed. We saw a lot of them but they're damn hard to photograph!. |
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| Jill just loved the volcanic caves we saw!! |