South Island Moments

I realized this morning that I didn't do any "moments" of the day on most of this trip, so since I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my flight back to Auckland.

Helpful moment of the visit:  I felt the most helpful on this adventure about 20 minutes ago when I took pictures of five Missionaries that were here for transfers.

Most beautiful moment of the trip:  

  Dunedin- the views from the high twisty road on the Otago Penninsula

  Christchurch- this will sound weird, but as a geography major it was the earthquake damage, especially from the air.

Most exciting moment:  having dinner with Elizabeth one of my AP US History students from Sierra High

Surreal moment: going through Airport security or not having any Airport security to go through and no one checking my ID

Craziest moment:  when we landed at the Dunedin airport and the plane did a 180 turn to drive backup the runway to the terminal.  This is not SEATAC :)

31 July -Otago

This is what I woke up to this morning:

I was pretty lazy, but I finally made my way to the Otago Settlers Museum.  It's a fairly new museum, open maybe a year.  They did a fabulous job and have so many original artifacts.  I got to dress like someone crossing on a boat from Britain.

Stand in front of a trolley

I saw this game:

Love it!

But my favorite room was the Smith Gallery.  I found it quite amazing that it was the Smith gallery because I would want this in my house:

Every wall was full of paintings and or pictures.  These people are the original settlers of the area that came from Britain.  Every one of them.  I would love tò have a room with pictures off all my ancestors.

Next I was daring and drove the Otago Peninsula.  Elizabeth, my former student, mapped out her favorite places for me and I followed.  Narrow, winding roads concentrating to stay on the left side.  

My legs are worn out.  My feet aching, so I decided to have an early night.  I'm hanging out packing my bags for my flight back to Auckland tomorrow.  I've loved the parts of the South Island I've seen, but I'm looking forward to returning to the Macs.  I'm not the most social of people, but I have to admit, I've been bored in my downtime and am probably annoying Andrea and Roger with a bunch of text messages and I miss the girls.

Halfway Highlights

It's a little more than halfway, but at the halfway point I came up with halfway highlights.  I'm feeling lazy this morning (Roger would say I'm lazy every morning) and watching the Love Boat, so I thought that maybe I'd be productive by sharing those highlights.  My lists are not in any particular order just the top five in each category.

Top five activities:

Surprise Birthday 

Visiting the war parts of the Auckland Museum

Black sands of Muriwai Beach

Swimming in the warm river

Standing in Lake Taupo

Top five moments:

Giggling with Keanna

Playing basketball and soccer with Mackenzie

Viewing the video Roger made when we worked together

Watching Roger be a dad

Spending time with the Macs

Top five things that "seem weird" to me:

Electric switches

Every plug I've seen has an on off switch

Kids running around school in bare feet

Okay this list isn't quite complete

Top five things I didn't expect

Topography

Despite pouring over topo maps, it's a lot more hilly than I thought it would be.

They pretty much watch the same TV, It's just older. Of course there are a few differences, but not too much

Loving color money

 

At first I was confused all the time (let's face it, I still am), but when I took a peek at my US money the other day, lets just say I thought it was boring looking.

How much longer a two hour drive seems.  When you have very little "freeway", everything is a two lane, windy road.

How at peace I feel here. I'm never peaceful on vacation, I'm always worried about something.  The minute I stepped off the plane I've felt completely at peace.

Things I know I'll miss when I leave:

Keanna's giggle 

Mackenzie's smile

Tip Top Ice Cream

Being close to water (yes I live near water in Washington, but its not quite the same)

Being teased by Roger

30 July -Dunedin

Today there were two big things on my agenda:

Cadbury World @ the Dunedin Chocolate factory.  New Zealand Cadbury chocolate is better than Cadbury chocolate in the US.  So I was excited to visit the factory that makes Magical Elves.

I have found its harder to get good pictures without someone else taking them without me having to take them.  This is the only part of the tour we could take pictures, the end.  I was sad to hear that I missed the magical elf production by one week, but the smell was heavenly and we got to taste liquid chocolate straight from the production floor. Yum!

The afternoon was a train ride on the Taieri Gorge Railway.  The train leaves from the Dunedin Railway Station.

Tonight I met up with a former student for dinner.  It was a fabulous day and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.  

29 July -Christchurch Airport

I think it is safe to say that buses and I do not get along.  I wanted to go to a needlework store this morning, but I got on the wrong bus.  Once I got it figured out, I knew I wouldn't get to the store and back on the correct bus to the airport.  I'd miss my flight, so I'm hanging out at the Christchurch International Airport.  Now out of the two airports I've been in here, this is the best domestic terminal.  The weirdest thing about flying domestically is that I have not been asked for my name/ identification a single time.  They actually believe that you are the person who is supposed to be on the plane.  My security screening in Auckland involved getting my iPad out of my bag.  I didn't have to take off my shoes or get my liquids out and they didn't check my ticket.  Today I won't even have to go through security screening to get on the plane.  Well it is a small plane with propellers, like a Skywest regional plane.  It's a nice change, but it also freaks me out.  

I'm off to Dunedin today.  It is further down the east coast of the South Island.  I'll be there for three nights.  Is a college town and a Scottish town.  It probably wouldn't have been on my list of places to visit in NZ except I've been looking at incredible pictures of the area for the past few years on Facebook.  One of my former students from Sierra HS in Manteca,CA lives there.  Kelly was in my history class and my AP US history class.  I have some fun things planned for tomorrow and Kelly has a list of things I need to see.  I'm excited to see her and hear about her life.

Sorry no pictures for today, but I put some extra photos up this morning.

Extras part 2

Dinner in Rotorua

Info center in Matamata aka Hobbiton

Ladies in a tree stump

Bay of islands, Russell 

Cathedral Square, Christchurch

Pink sheep

At the frog & kiwi

28 July Christchurch

Christchurch was just supposed to be a stopping place between transport from Wellington to Dunedin. After some changes in itenerary before and after I got here, it became a place to visit.  I didn't want to come to Christchurch, but now that I have, I'm glad I did.  

On my trip from the airport i didn't spot any damage from the quakes of 2010-11, but today it was easy to find evidence.

I started my day walking through Hagley Park

I passed by Christ's College getting my first look at rebuilding work, then slipped into the Canterbury Museum.  It was a fantastic museum.  They have a huge collection of china and glass from the past three centuries.  I saw a horse

 And a Dino-elk?

I walked through the maze of street and building closures of the CBD (that's the central business district for all you non geography majors). It was eerie to walk by businesses that were void of life and had these kinds of markings on the windows

 

Or the date they had been searched.  In some stores you could still see all their goods just sitting there covered in dust.  

I went to the Re:Start mall on Cashel Street.  A majority of the stores are made out of shipping containers.

Then I walked a couple of blocks to Cathedral Square.  This week the battle to tear it down has been won and it will start coming down.  I don't know why people thought this could be saved

The picture doesnt do the destruction justice.

Amazing destruction, so much to yet be pulled down, repaired, but the people I met were just so friendly and excited about the future.  

I spent a couple of hours at the mall closer to my hotel and splurged on this

This is a charm bracelet designed by nz company called evolve.  It's like a pandora one, but each charm related to New Zealand.  The charms I bought today represent (in left to right order) Hibiscus Coast (where the Macs live) the nz flag, Christchurch, map of nz, and Taupo (where my feet froze).  I plan to get a glass bead for each place I've been and a charm for things that are nz like a kiwi fruit and bird, netball, tomato sauce jar, silver fern, etc.

Tonight my legs are exhausted, so I think I'll stay in, pack, eat Jaffas, rest and get ready for my trip to Dunedin!!!

27 July to Christchurch

Today I got this mess sorted out:

And was dropped off at the airport to begin my South Island Journey.  I arrived in Christchurch to find that my suitcase was zipped open with all my stuff in it, but just piled inside.  I think a zipper pull came off, but there is no evidence that anything is broken and all of it is there.

I took my first taxi ride and I'm now ensconced in my hotel texting with the Macs waiting for dinner to arrive. 

Christchurch is flat. Much more flat than anywhere I've been in New Zealand.

My taxi driver told me I need to take pictures on the cathedral because next week they are going to start tearing it down.  I think that the central city will be my exploration for tomorrow.