Day 14 & 15 -Shake Rattle and Roll

Our last two days are combined into one - not a long story in each. We left Lake Tekapo in pretty much the same weather we arrived, cold, overcast, rainy. This part of the trip is ending the same way it started. Thankfully the middle was sunny.

We headed toward Christchurch taking in the sites as we went, not much new to see, rolling hills, the balance of the 40 million sheep we had missed on our other days and no sun. There may not be much different on this ride but it is still beautiful. The thing about this country is not so much that it has beauty, several of the places remind one of Pennsylvania, Iceland etc, but that it never stops. It is a non stop run on changing terrain of continuous pretty. Pretty much an ooh and aah and wow country.

We stopped in Geraldine to see the "world's largest sweater" and a fabulous copy, in steel chips, of the Bayeaux Tapestry. The gentleman who designed and created it also is a puzzle maker, mostly math type puzzles, fascinating. We both bought his CD with the puzzles as well as the info on the Tapestry. The shop was called The Worlds Largest Jersey .... Coulda been a cow .... Was a sweater that they call a jumper anyway . His little tapestry is made of over 2 million of these tiny chips with the colored ones hand painted before application. You can make your own judgement about the sanity of it all.

Teeny Tiny chips for the mosaic

Earthquake Destruction

Driving on through the rain we finally got to Christchurch and before checking into the hotel did a short tour up the rim of the crater which created the harbor. Fog fog fog, mist, mist, mist, ugh ugh ugh. However, we ended up at She Chocalat for lunch and some of the best chocolate around. Then we drove through town and saw some of the rubble from the quake that might have devastated one building and left the one right next door completely unscathed.

The Hotel George is wonderful, best hotel in Christchurch we were told. Laundry facility and everything. Had we known we had laundry in every hotel we would have taken way fewer clothes and smaller suitcases. So the wet laundry from the day before was dried and we went out for a wonderful Japanese dinner.

Got to sleep in on our last day, but what a spectacular day it was. It started with some rocking and rolling during breakfast. Several seconds of aftershock. All of a sudden it sounded like a great wind and the room swerved a bit.

Akaroa front yard

Hector Dolphins

Hector Dolphin showing off

The sun shone brightly, temperature was warm and we drove out to Akaroa to do a dolphin boat tour. What a treat. The Hector dolphins is the smallest and most endangered of the dolphins. There they were romping and flipping and diving all around the boat out in the Pacific Ocean. And amongst the dolphins were the tiny blue penguin. Very shy creatures so we could not get very close but did manage to see four swimming around. Off in the distance was a trawler so there were dozens of birds in the water and in the sky, Royal Albatross (same as we saw in the reserve but here in the open), Giant Petrels, great brown birds flying and dipping, and makes and models of pelagic flyers, outstanding. After about an hour we had to return to the dock but on the way there were fur seals and cormorants (here called Shags) along the shore.

Seals in the Pacific

Royal Albatross

Upon returning, we met a member of PWP who lives in Christchurch, an American who came here a while ago and stayed. Nice to see someone from home so far away.

For our farewell dinner, we took Sally and John, our guides, to a lovely restaurant called Cookin' with Gas, which was delish. Back to the hotel, one more load of laundry and off to an early start to Australia.