We left Lake Tekapo this morning and headed north on Hwy 72, "The Inland Scenic Route." The road runs west of Christchurch and so we were able to avoid driving through the city again. The drive was about 265 miles and most of it was through relatively flat farmland, with little (and I mean LITTLE) towns scattered every 20 or 30 miles. There wasn't a lot of memorable scenery until we got on Hwy 1 at Amberley. The last 20 miles or so between there and Kaikoura was along the coastline and the scenery was stunning, even with a consistent fog rolling in. Here are a couple shots along the coast:
If you look in the background, you'll see two highway tunnels on the right (one for each lane), a railroad tunnel on the far right, and a tunnel through the cliffside that has been eroded by the waves.
Here you can see how rugged the coastline was about 10 miles south of Kaikoura:
As you can see, this part of the coastline is pretty rugged and rocky. We didn't see a lot of surfers.
Tomorrow, it's up to Picton where we'll catch a 3 1/2 hour ferry ride across the Channel to the North Island city of Wellington. We'll be spending two nights in Wellington and then on up the North Island toward Auckland. Hard to believe, but this trip is starting to wind down.
Pat's Paragraph..... I know you've probably been wondering, does New Zealand bathrooms only have 1 18inch towel bar too? Well the answer is yes, But, you knew
that was coming right?, their 18 inch towel bar is in the shape of an S, giving you 3
surfaces to hang towels and washcloths.
Last night was the Earth and Sky Experience on Mt. St. John using the huge telescopes there. We had to use small LED red light key rings to see where we were going over the rough ground between the telescopes. The sky above Lake Tekapu is 1 of 5 in the world 'no light zones' so they can use the visual telescopes. The stars looked so bright and so close to us. Jupiter was brilliant last night, as was Venus. The Southern Cross, Orion, the Orion nebulae, the Tarantula nebulae and other constellations were all so clear and easy to pick out. The Pileades, or the Seven Sisters, is one we usually don't see at home because it is below the equator, like the Southern Cross. It was impossible to take pictures of course, and no white light of any kind was allowed. If you look on line for the group we were with, you'll see the fabulous night sky above the church we have pictures of yesterday's blog. You felt so little and humble as the Milky Way, and all the Cosmos, spins around you.
