Wellington and the South Island

We arrived in NZ to stay at Kristen and Kyle’s house which they were renting in the Hutt Valley –15 minutes from downtown Wellington.

It was lovely to see them all doing well and of course the children were growing fast. My mother continues at 91 to live and manage well on her own—luckily she has many family members visit regularly. She has had a new lease of life with Adelyn and Grayson visiting as they are the only young children around anymore. She enjoys buying little treats and toys to have when they come and it is nice to see—they are amongst the fortunate who establish a relationship with their great grandmother.

We got there in time for the Chinese New Year parade so had a day with the kids taking in a little of the culture—it was weird to think we had just arrived from China where the preparations had been going on for weeks.
We were lucky enough to take in a rugby match with Tracy, Ken and Brady who had now arrived in Wellington.

We had planned a trip to the South Island and left Wellington after a week on the ferry to Picton. Our first stop was to renew acquaintances with Graeme, Lynda and Lachy from Little Blue. We had spent two summers with them in Abel Tasman sailing together.

They are an extremely hospitable family and we set up our tent on their yard. Their home had been a casualty of the Christchurch earthquake and is still awaiting repairs. We took a tour of some of the worst hit areas and were horrified at how much there still is to do. Roads are still buckled and the city centre is still closed off as they continue demolishing buildings—it is now 2 years since the initial quake and somehow we had assumed it would all be fixed by now. It is horrifying to imagine how long it takes to rebuild in the third world if it takes this long in a prosperous country. As we drove in some areas damaged houses are still perched on the edge of cliffs and containers have been used as a barrier to stop landslides closing roads. Downtown, a shopping centre has been constructed using brightly coloured containers and it has become a tourist attraction. The feeling of the area is still eerie though as except for the containers businesses have relocated elsewhere and it is devoid of the bustle of a city centre. We were happy to see the Art Centre which was the former University which although blocked off appears to be mostly OK and looks as though it will be able to be saved. We visited a museum which has been set up to display the earthquake which was sobering. One of the most powerful items was a movie which was made solely of people’s memories of where they were and what happened to them on that day. It was heart wrenching as people talked about the search for loved family members who did not survive.

We wanted to do a “tramp” into the mountains and so left Christchurch to head to Te Anau which is the start of the Keppler Track which we planned to hike. It is one of “NZ’s Great Walks” which you book into the huts you wish to stay in before leaving. You need your sleeping bag and cooking equipment and food but bunks and stoves are provided.

We were lucky that the magnificent summer weather was still holding and we had amazing views as we climbed up the ridge. We had chosen this track as it is one of the shorter ones and you attain high altitudes quickly. You are surrounded by wonderful mountain vistas and lakes in the valleys. The huts are luxurious with running water and flush toilets. We took 3 days walking it but wished we had spent one more day as our last day was long and we felt we had to rush through some of the wonderful scenery.

Driving around the South Island was wonderful as the weather continued to hold—what a wonderful year it would have been to circumnavigate it on Cop Out—the summers we had spent there always had gale warnings for the far south and we had always felt it would have been an endurance test rather than a great trip.

Our trip took us from Alexandra to Queenstown where we stopped in Arrowtown for lunch. It is one of the quaintest historic towns in NZ having been a gold mining centre and is well preserved. We continued to cross the mountains at Haast Pass and continued to Franz Joseph Glacier for the next night marveling at the wonderful scenery as we drove through.

We stopped in Nelson for a few days, it is at the top of the South Island and has a great Saturday market—a larger version of the Saltspring Market where I have sold and hope to go back to sell my pottery. I love to visit the Nelson market and get inspired by some of the lovely work displayed there.

It was now time to catch the ferry back to Wellington to spend more family time.