South to North

Apart from helicopter whale-watching, we’ve been up to a fair bit since we left Dunedin. We first drove to Geraldine, close to Peel Forest, where they filmed some of the Lord of the Rings films. We went for a couple of walks in the forest, one to look at a waterfall, the other to see some ‘big trees’! One of which was almost 9m in circumference!

We then visited Christchurch, which was a bit of a shock in reality. The entire city centre, about 1.5km square, is completely closed off due to earthquake damage, and numerous buildings, especially the older ones, around the city are in various stages of demolition. What was even more horrid is the sense of abandonment that comes across from so many of the buildings, with many still full of rubble and just cornered off. Speaking to a couple of New Zealanders we realised the main problem is the continuing earthquakes, which mean every building needs an evaluation after each one to deem whether they are safe, can be repaired, or need to be demolished. Apparently, due to the constant occurrence of the earthquakes and the sheer scale of the damage the insurance companies can in many cases no longer afford to pay out also. Consequently, the government have bought some people’s homes that were beyond repair so that they wouldn’t be left with nothing.

Following Christchurch we visited Kaikoura and went whale-watching. We also visited a couple of seal colonies. One of which had a very lazy/crazy seal, who was sleeping in the middle of the road. At the other we saw seal pups playing around in the pool at the base of a waterfall. They were jumping up out of the water, chasing each other; clearly seals get lazier the older they get!

Friday morning we drove to Picton and Marlborough Sound where we climbed what the locals call Everest to gain 360 panoramic views of the sounds, it took over an hour to walk to the top and only 20 mins to get down, the views were superb and definitely worth it. We also went to Nelson for the weekly market; it was a lot like Petersfield except no Waitrose.

On Sunday morning we found a lost dog (a golden Labrador), who we saw wondering along by the side of the road as we drove past. We couldn’t see anyone with it, and then we saw it head onto the railway line by the level crossing. Ryan managed to catch her, and we rang the number on her collar. As it was raining she clambered in the campervan whilst we waited to take her back to her owners. Unfortunately on returning her there was no reward (we shouldn’t have bothered – joking) as the owner hadn’t even realised she was missing. We then caught the ferry to the north island; Wellington more precisely, where we watched the second England rugby match in the evening.

Wellington lived up to its name as ‘windy welli’, throwing in some rain for good measure; it felt quite a lot like home! In Wellington we visited the parliament buildings, and had a tour inside. The parliament and system of government is fairly similar to the British system, although they have a voting system of proportional representation, but the inside of the building had a real Maori influence, with carvings and exhibits. We also rode the cable car, and visited the NZ museum, which has a real giant (Colossal) squid preserved; lovely!