Fiordland National Park

When we left last night we expected heavy rain for most of today. Well, luckily that didn’t happen as we had overcast skies and the sun did make an appearance several times.

Fiordland National Park covers over 3.1 acres of land, nearly 5% of the area of New Zealand and was declared a World Heritage Area in 1986.

As we entered the fiords a beautiful rainbow appeared.

The coastline was very rocky as we entered Dusky Sound.

As you can see it was a very narrow passage through the fiords.

I love this photo Jer took looking aft from the front of the ship. The smoke from the ship was billowing off to the side.

There were many waterfalls all the way through the fiords. This one is in Milford Sound.

The Captain got the nose of the ship almost in this waterfall.  All the people in this picture are crew.  They have an area just for them in the front of the ship. 

This was the largest waterfall that we saw at the very end of Milford Sound.

Our trip through the fiords took us into Dusky Sound, around Resolution Island, and out to Breaksea Sound. We then went up the coast to Doubtful Sound, around Secretary Island and out at Thompson Sound. Another couple of hours of sailing the coastline and into Milford Sound. The town of Milford is at the end of the sound so that is where we turned around and sailed back out.

To say the least, it was a spectacular day. We are very sad to be leaving New Zealand. It is a beautiful country with the most friendly people. I truly hope that we will visit once again.

We now have two sea days and we will then be in Sydney, Australia. See you there!!

 

 

Dunedin and Penquin Place

Hi All,

Today we are visiting our last port in New Zealand, Dunedin.  We are sad to leave New Zealand, it is such a beautiful country.  This morning we took a short tour of downtown Dunedin.  We saw this beautiful church.

And the Dunedin train station. 

The train station has a floor with 750,000 tiles in it.  Here is one section of the floor.

A school for boys.

Then in the afternoon we went to Penquin Place which is a conservation reserve to protect the endangered Yellow Eyed Penguin.  The first place we went was the penguin hospital where injured penguins are nursed back to health.  We saw lots of penguins in the hospital.

This beach is part of the penguin habitat.  The beach is also home to seals.  The seals are not predators to the Yellow Eyed penguin.  The beach is closed to humans.

 

We planted two trees in the park to provide more habitat for the penguins. Here is one of our trees.  Maybe someday we can come back and see it.

So that was our day in Dunedin and Penguin Place.  We are now sailing towards Fiordland where we will go through three vary narrow sounds, they should be beautiful.  Bye for now.

Jer and Helen

 

 

 

 

Christchurch After The Quake

Hi All,

Yesterday we toured Christchurch, NZ’s second largest city.  As many of you recall, Christchurch suffered two major earthquakes, the first on Sept 4, 2010 was 6.1 magnitude, and the second on Feb 22, 2011 was 7.9 magnitude.  The Sept quake caused significant damage to Christchurch but no fatalities. The Feb quake killed 185 people and caused catastrophic damage to Christchurch and its suburbs.  The total cost estimate for damages is $50 billion.  1000 of 4000 buildings in the city center have been or will be demolished.  Of 220 buildings more than 5 stories tall, 110 have been demolished.  Over 10,000 homes were destroyed.

Some buildings  like this movie theater are still awaiting demolition.  You can still see the theater seats in this picture. 

This shows damage to Christchurch Cathedral.  The church’s spire collapsed. There is controversy about whether the church will be restored or demolished and rebuilt.  The issue is now in court.

In the meantime this temporary cathedral has been built.  It is called the cardboard cathedral because the roof is supported by cardboard tubes.

This is what remains of the Catholic Cathedral.  The second picture shows what it looked like before the quake.

This is the site of the destroyed Canterbury Television building.  Of the 185 quake deaths, 115 died in this building.  The site is now somewhat of a memorial and people leave flowers which you can see in the middle of the picture.

This church has been braced until money is found to fund its restoration.

This arch honors New Zealand’s war dead and it is being repaired.

These next pictures show what is called the ReStart Mall.  It is a collection of shipping containers that have been put together and turned into stores, cafes, restaurants, etc.  What a clever solution to temporally address the destruction in the city center.  We had lunch in this area.

So that is a look at Christchurch today.  The recovery continues and it will take many years until it is complete.  New buildings are being completed every month.  BTW, the new building code limits buildings to 7 stories maximum.  The people are very resilient, determined, upbeat, and very friendly.  They miss what they have lost, but they are building a beautiful city.  We were moved by our visit to this amazing city.

Jer and Helen

Wellington and Sheep Farm

Hi All,

Today we are in Wellington, the capital of NZ.  We started the morning with a walking tour of the city.  We rode a cable car up to a point high above the city.

The views of the city were amazing.

We then walked down to the city center.  Along the way we passed through this beautiful rose garden.

We passed through a city cemetery.  Included in the head stones was this one of a New Zealand Moari native.

And this from a man, his wife, and his son, a WW1 veteran.

After our walk down the hill, we arrived in the city center.  Wellington is beautiful, this is one of the city streets.

So that was our morning.  In the afternoon the real fun started, we went to a sheep farm.  We drove about an hour from where the ship was docked.  We traveled along the seaside until we reached a very narrow road that climbed way above the beach.  We were amazed that our large bus could even go up this road, wouldn’t want to try it in our motorhome!  At the top we reached the sheep farm.  This is the farmer’s house with sheep in his front yard, only a few of his over 3000.

This is the view from the farmer’s front porch, WOW!

Next the farmer demonstrated how his sheep dogs worked.  One dog is trained to drive the sheep away and barks a lot.  The other dog brings the sheep back and doesn’t make a sound.  It was fascinating watching the dogs work.

We saw lots of sheep.

These sheep are raised for meat and will be coming soon to a Costco or Sam’s near you.  After leaving the sheep farm we drove along the shoreline back to our ship.  Our ship is in the middle of this picture.

We passed this light house along the way.

Shortly before reaching the port, we passed by the Wellington railroad station, another example of how beautiful this city is.

So this was our day in Wellington.  We continue to be amazed at the beauty of New Zealand.  Tomorrow we will be in Christchurch and have a city tour planned.  Our tour is called Christchurch After The Quake and is the story of how the city is recovering from the devastating  2011 earthquake.  Bye for now.

Jer and Helen

 

 

Napier and Wine Country

Hi All,
Jer here.  Today we are in Napier, NZ.  In 1931 the city was hit by a 7.9 earthquake.  Nearly the entire city was destroyed and 258 people died.  The city decided to rebuild in the European Art Deco style.  Thus, there are many Art Deco buildings in the town.  This is one of them.


We didn’t get to see many of the buildings in town as our mission today was wine tasting in the Hawks Bay region.  We had a private tour for 7 people, and we went to 5 wineries and tasted over thirty wines.  But first we visited Te Mata Peak which sits high above Napier and gives great 360 degree views.  It was a bit of a cloudy and hazy morning but the views were still spectacular.  Note the paraglider in this picture, he jumped off the peak just as we arrived.

From the peak we had a view of the Craggy Range Winery which we were going to visit.

We tasted wine and had lunch at Craggy Range.  Jer had the flounder.

Helen had the fresh line caught fish.  Both dishes were excellent.

The tasting room at the last winery we went to was a converted horse stable, our guide took this picture of us (have already sampled 25 wines).

Some of the grapes at Ngatarawa Winery.

So, that’s a look at our day in Napier.  The wine region was beautiful, I'm sure some of you have had wines from here.  This evening we sail for Wellington.  We will tour the city in the morning, then we are going to a sheep farm in the afternoon.
Bye for now,
Jer and Helen