Tuesday 25th February
It has been a day of contrasts. We said farewell to Dunedin (and temporarily to Jamie, who will be working for the next few days) in the morning and took a plane to Christchurch. After picking up our hire car we drove into the town to have a look around. We walked along the river path into the centre and saw that the damage caused by the bad earthquake ten years ago is still very obvious. The Cathedral is gaping open to the elements and many other buildings in the centre are badly damaged. There is a lot of building work going on but it’s not going to be finished any time soon. We had lunch in a wee café before returning to the car heading east towards the mountains.
First we drove through a lot of flat farming land with hedgerows and some huge leylandi hedges, presumably planted to protect the crops. Eventually the road started rising steeply into the Southern Alps. They are stunning, with mountain peaks and high plateaus and alpine lakes. When we arrived at tonight’s destination of Arthur’s Pass we went for a walk up to the viewpoint for the Devil’s Punchbowl waterfall. There were a lot of steps! The late afternoon sun lit up the crashing water and there was a rainbow dancing at its base. We were both tired so took ourselves for drinks and an early dinner to the Wobbly Kea restaurant.
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