Hello again.
When we left you before
we had just arrived in Kaikoura, which was our first stop on the
South Island of New Zealand. We only had one day in the sleepy little
town so that we could enjoy the activity Kaikoura is renowned for;
whale watching. Whilst the oceanic geography around the town makes it
a haven for the giant mammals (not far out to sea there is a wall in
the ocean floor where the depth drops dramatically, this is a prime
location for fish and therefore the whales which feed off them) and
an encounter is 95% guaranteed, they are phenomenal creatures to see.
We were very lucky to see three Sperm whales and the boat stayed with
each of them for the entire time that they were at the surface so
that we could see them dive. We also saw a number of seals, loads of
albatross as well as a pod of Hector dolphins (round-nosed dolphins
which are both the world's smallest and rarest!).
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| the inaccessible 'Red Zone' where the most damage was done |
Our next destination
was the largest city on the South Island; Christchurch. Known as the
garden of NZ, the city is meant to be the most 'British' of the
country and you can see the influence as you wander around; lined
with streets such as Worcester St. and Gloucester St. it even has its
own river Avon on which you can punt! Unfortunately the city is still
in a state of forced regeneration after an earthquake devastated much
of the CBD in February 2011 (the earthquake reached 6.8 on the
Richter scale!). In fact it is startling to see the level of
destruction that must have occurred, the main precincts have largely
been fenced off as the buildings have either collapsed or been
structurally damaged so much that it will be easier to level them and
start from the ground up rather than try to save them. It is
particularly sad to see areas such as the arts precinct along
Worcester St. where many of the old buildings didn't survive; this is
particularly true of the Cathedral which was heralded as one of the
prettiest in the world and is now in tatters.
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| ReStart Precinct |
Nevertheless, the
people of Christchurch are trying to move on and nowhere is this more
evident than the vibrant and innovative ReStart precinct. This unique
shopping area has a very youthful and fun vibe about it where
brightly coloured storage containers have been used to set up a
shopping area which has become a tourist hotspot all of its own. We
only had a day to explore the city and we spent a lot of it thinking
what it would have been like before the quake; we found ourselves a
little short of things to do and on a grey day like the one we
experienced it meant that we sought refuge in a café (albeit one
which roasts its own beans and produces its own blends, even better
the unctuous brownie came complete with fruit and nuts inside - it
was fair trade, organic and gluten free which I think makes it
healthy...).
The next morning
heralded an early start so that we could make the 8am Tranz-Alpine
rail service. As the name suggests, this train runs across the
breadth of the S. Island and through the Southern Alps. The journey
started in the flat and open farm lands of Canterbury before the
scenery changed dramatically as we wound our way through the
mountains to our destination in Greymouth. We had a beautifully crisp
and clear day for the journey and made full use of the open sided
viewing carriage to take in the spectacular scenery. The best way for
you to appreciate how stunning the views were is just to check out
the pictures we've posted below.
From Greymouth we had
one more bus connection which took us about two hours down the west
coast to Franz Josef. We'll leave this post here and we'll pick up in
Franz next time.
Lots of love,
Leah and Mat
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