Mr. Lubin peering at his personal entertainment center on the Air New Zealand flight.
We’re on our way to New Zealand, although sitting at the gate with more than an hour to board, we ain’t goin’ nowhere fast. SuperShuttle scheduled our pick-up at 1830, a full four hours before take-off. We grabbed some supper at one of the eateries along the councourse - I wouldn’t dignify them with the term restaurant.
I booked the reservations for this walk back in December/January although it wasn’t until August that enough people had booked the trip to guarantee the departure. Even then it looks like we have a group of seven walkers compared to our previous walks where the number was 18.
The choice of New Zealand was based on the accumulation of our previous experiences with Country Walkers tours. We found that our greatest enjoyment came from nature/natural history rich walks, so I looked for a walk that was primarily through countryside and had the potential for exposure to unusual flora and fauna. New Zealand fit the bill as the evolution of the critters and and plants in that that area has been somewhat isolated and given rise to unique biotica.
One of the feature in New Zealand is a series of trails, locally called tracks. The most famous of these is the Milford Track, which takes 5 days to walk (according to the ulimatehikes website), ending at the Milford sound. We don’t walk on that track although I keep telling people that if we have a good time on this trip we’ll go back and walk that track. We do have planned a day trip to Milford Sound that’s an extension of this trip to see the scenic fjords that area is famous for.
Our flight takes us from LAX to Auckland, and if the time difference is what I think it is (-4 hours, +1 day), it looks like a 13 hour flight. We have ~2 hour layover in Auckland before our plane for Christchurch takes off for the 90 minute flight. I’ve got a pile of reading material to pass the time, as I don’t really sleep on airplanes. We’ll see how it goes.
We arrived on time after the 12 hour flight. You’ll notice the gap in the travelogue in that there is no November 2nd entry. That’s because we spent barely 3 hours in that day before crossing the international date line, which made it November 3rd in a hurry. We’ll make up for it on the way back on the 17th.
The only mishap so far is we missed our connection to Christchurch. We had only 90 minutes to get through passport control and biohazard inspection (where they looked at our hiking boots and trekking poles). When we got from the international terminal to the domestic terminal to recheck our bags, the flight was listed as “boarding” and the agent who was processing us said that the flight had closed. So we’re booked on a flight leaving about ~90 minutes later than the original. So we took the opportunity to get cash at a money machine and a bite to eat (sushi at 9 am local time). So we’re now waiting for the plane to arrive so we can board it.
As we sit in the atrium lounge and bar, I hear the pianist playing his interpretation of that lovely ballad “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” by Meatloaf (Meatloaf?!? Again?!?).
We were reflecting on our transoceanic flight, which was on a 747 equipped with personal entertainment centers at each seat. Unfortunately our frequent flyer airline (Continental) does not fly to New Zealand or have a code share that would’ve allowed us to use our miles to upgrade to first/business class. As a result we were in coach on this Air New Zealand flight - row 60 sitting on the aisle across from each other. Where we were lucky is that both of us had an empty seat next to us, so that we had space to overflow and weren’t crowded when we tried to sleep. As usual, I managed only light dozes so at the moment I’d really like to go to bed, but I want to hold off until 8pm at the earliest to get accustomed to the time. I spend a lot of the flight - when I wasn’t trying to sleep - playing the version of sudoku on the personal entertainment center (while watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, sans sound, for the second time on the monitor of someone ahead and across the aisle from me). About three hours out of Auckland, I made myself stop playing sudoku so I could begin to read one of the books I brought - “A Travelers History of New Zealand.” As it is, I’ve only just gotten to the point where the Europeans are entering the picture.
The flight from Auckland and Christchurch was about 90 minutes and uneventful, although as we approached Christchurch and got under the deck of clouds the Southern Alps of New Zealand with their snowcapped peaks were visible marching in rows westward. We took a cab for the 15 minute ride to the Crowne Plaza Hotel. New Zealand, like England, drives on the left - glad I don’t have to drive this trip. Once we checked in and dropped the bags in the room, we came down to the hotel restaurant for lunch after both of us took a shower. I was feeling really grungy when we checked in.
From there we walked over to the Christchurch Botanical Gardens while the weather was warm and dry. We walked through the Christchurch Cultural Precinct where the old University of Canterbury campus has been converted to a series of galleries and restaurants called the Arts Centre. Given that November is spring in the southern hemisphere (our May), the gardens had a marvelous range of flowering bushes especially rhododendron and azaleas. We also wandered through the “pinarium” or a pine arboretum that Jonathan enjoyed. We took our time and took a leisurely stroll through the gardens. We did miss the conservatory which closed at 4pm.
Mr. Lubin peering at his personal entertainment center on the Air New Zealand flight.
Waiting for the connection to Christchurch at Auckland.
My boots and trekking poles after their inspection by biohazard control at the airport.
The view out our hotel window.
One of the banks of flowers at the botanical garden.
Pine cones sitting like so many brown eggs on pine limb. There are no squirrels in New Zealand.
Kayakers on the Avon River as it flows through the botanical garden.
An azalea that caught my eye.
A bank of rhododendrons of unusual colors.
My first shot of Jonathan with his camera.
Another rhododendron that caught my eye.
I took this to show the tidiness and how well kept these gardens are.
Jonathan wandering down the path.
More flowering bushes.
A close-up of the blue flowers from the previous picture.
The Avon River.
I think these are a couple of sequoias.
Jonathan mugging in front of the rhododendrons.
The street car that made a circuit of downtown Christchurch.
Ceramic figure, titled 'INDUSTRY'.
Ceramic figure, titled 'CONCORD'.
I spotted the ceramic figures on this building on either side of the second storey windows.
These yellow flowers on a tree on the street are kowhai (ko-fi), the national flower of New Zealand.
From there we walked through the Art Centre and found a wine bar to w(h)ine in. After a glass of a delightful pinot noir and an espresso, we poked our heads into a couple of galleries (which were closing as it was a little after 5 pm) with the idea that we would go back the next day. My plan was to see the gardens while the weather was good, then do a gallery crawl.
So we walked back to the hotel, dropped the cameras in the room, set up the rechargers, and have now retired to the hotel bar to sip on another excellent local pinot noir (Matahiwi Estate pinot noir), and nibble on a sushi plate and catch up on the journals.
Today was the first day of walking with Country Walkers. Yesterday, November 4th, we returned to the Cultural Precinct and wandered though all the crafts shops - the booths in the courtyard and the permanent establishments throughout the campus. The set-up reminded me of the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria VA where the factory was converted to arts and crafts studios and classrooms. This center has a theatre and performance space as well. Nothing really sang to us although there was a lot of nice stuff.
We returned to the hotel after having lunch at Annie’s Wine Shop. After asking the concierge about internet access, we went to an internet “cafe” where for $3/hour I was able to ascertain that Virginia Tech did win their game at Georgia Tech. I think VT is undefeated while I’m on vacation. (Note after the fact - they were undefeated during this vacation, knocking off Florida State and Miami also.) I finished the Travelers History of New Zealand and we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and turned in for the evening.