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Andrea & Dani

Dani & Andrea

Christchurch is dubbed ´The Garden City´and is known as being the most English of New Zealand´s cities with reminders of colonial feel including school children dressed in blazers and straw hats attending prep-schools and river named Avon where you can go punting. We decided to buy day tickets to the cities tram which runs around its centre allowing you to ´hop on and off´as you like. All the trams have been beautifully restored and are driven by uniform wearing drivers who provide entertaining and informative information on the area as the trams rumble on their tracks around the city. We decided to stay on board for the whole circuit to start with to find out where everything was but in the end the journey turned out only to take thirty minutes and all in Christchurch is within walking distance. Our first stop was Cathedral Square which is dominated by the Gothic-revival Anglican Christchurch Cathedral. This morning there was a small craft market here and a group of young women and men dressed in traditional Maori costume performing traditional songs and dance, it still gives me goosebumps when I hear them. We then wandered down Columbo Street, which is where the majority of shops are picking up a few last minute bits before jumping back on the tram to head to the Arts centre which was once the site of the original University of Canterbury.  Here, there was another weekend craft market selling local jewelry including Jade, clothing and wooden carved items to name but some. The old Gothic revival buildings now house an excellent and dynamic array of arts and crafts, restaurants and bars. We headed off then to have some lunch, opting for the New York Deli sandwich shop which had been recommended on passing by our tram driver and offers ´the best sandwich in town´. Good recommendation too! Yummy.

We did go into the Christchurch Art Gallery which has over 5500 permanent works on display but with neither of us really understanding, for example, ten pairs of Y-front underpants with individual pieces of fruit coming out of their openings laid out in a circle, we only moseyed around for a short time Outside the doors is the River Avon, so we stood on the bridge and watched tourists drape their knees with blankets and be punted off downstream.

A stroll around the Botanical Gardens followed which I am sure are beautiful when in full bloom in the summer, but were lacking in colour today so we stopped and watched the local college rugby team play their Saturday afternoon match, which seemed to have attracted a huge number of supporters. With the temperature beginning to drop, we decided to head on back with the distant tram bell echoing around the city, stopping at a local Irish pub en-route for a glass of warm mulled wine

We checked into the Sunset Motel which gave us unprecedented views of the peaks of the snow capped Mount Cook and some of its neighbours showing themselves from behind the lower summits ahead of them.

Both Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers provide a dramatic sight as being the brightest jewels in the decorated crown of the Westland and Mount Cook National Parks, separated by the summits of the Southern Alps and the Great Dividing Range. Descending from a height of 3000m (9800ft) to 300m (980ft) at the remarkable speed of over 1m (3ft) a day, the glaciers create one of the best examples of glaciology in the world. During the summer, both villages bordering theses two glaciers are humming with activity, winter months, like now, are slightly quieter as the weather is less predictable being wet and cloudy at times, but it is amazing to see the tourism that surrounds the two, multi-million ton blocks of ice. We had decided to do a hike at the foot of Fox Glacier, but on arrival at the starting point, we found that we couldn’t go any further due to the fact that the trail had been washed away after the recent heavy rainfall and was now prone to landslides and rockfalls unless accompanied by a glacier guide. We did however see the front of the glacier, covered on its top by rock debris collected on its progression down the valley. Due to the cloudy weather, and expense, we decided against spending the money on the short helicopter excursion to land on the glacier itself.

So we headed down the grass covered valley to Lake Matheson, famed for its reflective natural pools which mirror the mountain peaks perfectly. We completed the track around the lake on a couple of occasions waiting for the conditions to be right to capture this image ourselves. Surrounded by damp, moss covered forests, it is a pleasant walk to take. Traveling further down towards the coast, we found ourselves at Gillespie Beach made up of perfectly rounded pebbles and masses of smooth driftwood stretching as far as you can see along the coast. Fur seals can be spotted frolicking in the ocean making their way up the coast to their colony at Galway Point about an hour and a half walk from the carpark. So from here you have the sound of the crashing waves of the Tasman Sea hitting this rocky shoreline, a view of the ocean to the horizon and, on turning, a scene of low grassland finishing with a view of the Southern Alps, Fox Glacier and Mount Cook, peaked in snow and hugged by green, Alpine forests Now that is WOW factor!!

The early mornings are one of the best times to experience these mountainous areas, where the overnight dew covered grass and trees begin steaming in the heat of the morning sunshine.

With the clear blue skies that we were fortunate to have, it was perfect. Waking up and going outside to see your breath in the air and seeing such sights is something that neither of us will be forgetting….accompanied by the sheer silence (apart from distant waterfalls) it is definitely a breathtaking place to experience…….another of New Zealand´s many gems……how we will miss this country……

We took the winding road which meanders parallel to another turquoise coloured lake, Lake Pukaki. Autumnal coloured trees line its shores reflected in its calm waters. As we drove, the morning cloud began to clear slowly revealing the peaks that we had read about. We had to slow down at one point to make way for cattle being moved from one grazing area to another, herded by not only dogs, but by horse mounted ´cowboy´farmers. The drive takes about forty minutes to the outskirts of Mount Cook Village where we turned off towards the Hooker Valley, where the walk we had earmarked commenced.

In Mount Cook National Park there is virtually no forest, with around one third of it being permanent snow and ice, so with lower slopes showing some trees, the majority of colour comes from the Alpine plants on the valley floors. We left the car at the campsite and began our hike up the valley. Morning dew still glistened on the low lying grass and shrubs with snow covered Mount Sefton clear and crisp to our left. You cross over a swing bridge before reaching Mueller Glaciar Lake before continuing up the valley eventually crossing over a second swing bridge. The rocky trail takes you through bushland alongside a gushing, cloudy coloured stream where you suddenly round the valley side and are offered an uninterrupted view of Mount Cook itself, standing at the head of the Hooker Valley. The trail ends at the Hooker Glacier Lake, where you can see the Hooker Glacier nestled at its start. Although covered in debris that has been collected on its top during its move down the valley, you can still see the whiteness of its front as it touches the lake, which has small icebergs floating amoungst its water. The scene was an amazing one, clear blue sky, deep, crisp white snow on its peak and a high mountainous valley around us with New Zealand´s highest peak ahead of us……well worth the hike and well worth waiting for the cloud to clear