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South Island,
New Zealand The South Island was not nearly as warm as the North Island! In some of the mountains, it snowed while we were there (not on us, though). At the southernmost point in our journey, we were far enough south that sunset did not come until around 10 p.m. We saw the Southern Cross, keas (the world's only alpine parrot), New Zealand fur seals (actually a species of sea lion), and many other interesting things! While walking around the town of Manapouri, we noticed this little gnome house. I knocked but no one answered. I suppose the gnome is traveling. Wonder if he's taking pictures of his adventures, too! |
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| Isn't this cool? We are officially halfway between the equator and the South Pole. This sign was located on the road between Te Anau and Milford Sound. |
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| This is Milford Sound - it's a real fiord! A fiord is a glacier-carved valley that is filled in by the sea. Milford Sound is one of the wettest places on earth - it gets almost seven meters of rain every year. Two out of three days are rainy here. The peak behind me is one of the most famous sights of New Zealand - Mitre Peak. Doesn't the light have an eerie quality to it? The sound was very beautiful. We saw fur seals and the very rare Fiordland Crested Penguin. |
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| Queenstown was the most lovely spot of our stay in New Zealand. It is the adventure capital, too, so if you want to try jetboating, kayaking, or bungy-jumping, you're in the right spot. This picture was taken from the summit of Bob's Peak. One can buy a ticket on a gondola for a ride to the top. From here you can see Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu, and the Remarkables in the distance. |
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| Now that we've had lunch, taken a walk around the peak, and Todd has done a pass on the luge, we are heading down into town to find other things to do. We went around Deer Park Heights for a couple of hours - absolutely lovely! You can actually see the park in this picture - it's the hill in the distance in between me and Todd. |
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| Arrowtown was a town built on the gold rush. Prospectors came from all over - including many from China - to find their fortunes. The scars from their sluice mining can still be seen on the surrounding hills. Today, for $3 you can rent a pan and look for some gold yourself. I think I spotted a few tiny, tiny flakes! |
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| We spent an entire day with John from Wanaka Sightseeing and had a blast. Since we had booked one of the Lord of the Rings tours, we were taken to see places used as locations in the movies. The first part of the day was by land and after lunch we took to the air. Here I am getting a feel for the controls, but don't worry, I let our pilot Simon do the actual flying! |
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| Air traffic control routed us around Deer Heights Park, so we saw some of the deer from the air. Simon is very kindly pointing them out to me but as they were below us, I don't think they made it into the picture. |
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| This lovely spot is Skippers Canyon outside of Arrowtown. The road to this area is so bad, rental cars are not allowed to use it. Since we flew in, we had a much more pleasant trip to the canyon than most. If you've seen Fellowship of the Ring, you should recognize this spot as the one where the flood washes away the Black Riders. |
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| When we got back to Wanaka, I was still so excited about all the things I'd seen from the air! The mountains, glaciers, and lakes were so lovely. Before we said goodbye, John and Simon agreed to pose with me by the helicopter. John (who is holding me) is from Devon, which is just next door to Dorset where I'm from! |
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| You can't really tell from this picture, but we are actually taking a stroll on an iceberg! The iceberg is floating on the lake at the end of the Tasman Glacier. The Tasman Glacier moves very slowly. It is the largest glacier in New Zealand at 18 miles long and, in places, 2 miles wide. The glacier and its icebergs are covered with gravel, so that rocky stuff you can see at the bottom of the picture is pebbles sitting on top of ice. The rocky wall behind us is the glacier itself. |
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| What a sight! If you've seen The Two Towers, you'll recognize this as the location for the set of Edoras. The rocky outcropping in the center of the picture where the set was built is called Mt. Sunday because shepherds used it as a meeting place on Sundays for church services. Potts Station can be accessed via a gravel road. It is about two hours from Christchurch. |
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| Unfortunately, I'm in focus and the whale isn't! But still, that's a sperm whale out there, diving into the depths of the Kaikoura Canyon to get himself a few more tons of fish and squid to eat. The resident sperm whales of Kaikoura are young adult males who have left their home pod but aren't yet big enough or old enough to interest the females as a mate. The females live closer to the equator where the water is warmer, so when this guy thinks he's got enough bulk and charm, he'll leave here and head that way to try to find a pod to take him in. |
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Today we've come to Akaroa to go on a harbor tour. But before we go,
we indulge in one of my favorite past-times: fish & chips by the sea!
The fish was Akaroa cod. Akaroa was founded partly by French settlers (who wanted to claim the land for France but found the Union Jack here instead), so many of the streets have French names and there are several French restaurants here. |
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| We've been around the harbor and seen fur seals, blue penguins, pied shags, spotted shags (shags are cormorants, I found out), a skua, and Hector's dolphins. The day was lovely but the wind was atrocious! It was so bad that when we got back to Christchurch, we discovered the gondola there was closed due to "adverse weather conditions." |
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| This is the Canterbury Cat, which was our transportation for the harbor tour. |
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| We say goodbye to the airplane which brought us from New Zealand to California. The trip was 12 hours long this time because it was direct (we stopped at Papeete and Rarotonga on the way out). This is our second Friday in a row because we crossed the international date line and got back the day we lost when we crossed it going west. We now have the day to look around Los Angeles and will get back home tomorrow. |
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The
La Brea Tar Pits are world famous for all the animal bones that have
been found in the various oozing pits of naturally-occuring
asphalt. The stuff comes up from 1500 feet below the
surface. This particular pit is called Lake Pit.
The tar pits began trapping animals around 40,000 years ago and
continue trapping them today. I'm glad I'm not any closer than
this! Tour companies my hosts used and would recommend: |
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