Scenery To Die For

Monday 11 December

We had the luxury of a very late morning start again today, the coach not leaving until 10.00, which meant I could catch up on sending out some Christmas postcards before breakfast. The man in the shop told us they would take about a week to reach England, but two, or even three to get to Australia!. Whilst I was in the shower, we had an early morning call from Juz to let us know everyone had all arrived safely at Chez Williams. Grandad had apparently asked why they were going to the airport when on the way to Southampton and Nanny didn’t realize they were flying, even though it was a really bumpy ride! But we were very pleased to hear they had managed the journey without too many mishaps. We then partook of a leisurely breakfast, before boarding the coach for our first look at the Southern Alps. We have fifteen new people on the coach today – just doing the South Island tour – so a lot of new faces greeted us as we boarded.

For us train travelers and the new passengers, we did a very short tour round Christchurch and up a hill at Banks Peninsula, which allowed a view of the Canterbury Plain, Pegasus Bay and the Pacific ocean, as well as the city itself – not many high rises here, as Christchurch was built on swampy ground near the mouths of the rivers Avon and Heathcoate. There was a lot of low cloud obscuring the horizon on the Plain, so we couldn’t see the Southern Alps and Mount Cook today, which was a shame. There have been many surveys of the region recently, and they now have the technology for new buildings to go higher – so I expect it will become a high rise city in the future. Christchurch currently has more shops per head of population (around 350,000) than any other town in New Zealand – we will be back in a week, so am looking forward to at least some window shopping. In the 1930’s, a man called Harry Ells thought Christchurch was expanding too far up the hillside which would spoil an area where many people then went to walk and relax. So he built four ‘rest homes’ on a circular route – now a roadway – where people could come and walk around near the peak, and have places to stop and take tea. They were like small grey castles, or perhaps monasteries, with crenellations round the roof, sited in gardens bursting with roses around small lawn. All very pleasant – but ours was just a photo stop.

We passed the racecourse – the only place to gamble in Christchurch until ten years ago, and the old airfield, where a wily old pilot called Harry Wigram taught men to fly for free, as long as they then went to England and joined the Royal Air Force to fight in the First World War. New Zealand did not get an Airforce until 1922. Today out of a population of 4 million, New Zealand only has 12,500 in the combined armed forces.

We left the hill and made our way out on to the Canterbury Plain where 80% of New Zealand’s wheat is grown (the rest is imported from Australia) and 20% of the sheep are reared (Canterbury lamb) - many hill sheep are brought down to be fattened on the Plain before slaughtering. There are now less than 40 million sheep compared with 75 million in the 1980’s – partly due to the withdrawal of subsidies by the Government – so that farmers are turning to dairy farming with herds between 700 and 1000 cows, which appears more profitable. Alpaca farms are a new venture in this area, eating more grass but yielding more fleece. In the shops here, garments made from alpaca wool are common.

The Plain has been built up over millions of years, by rivers eroding the hills and mountains and depositing silt on this flat glacial plain. The two tectonic plates – Australian and Pacific are still moving away from each other west of Canterbury at a rate of 1 inch (25mm) per year - so they have moved 5 feet further apart in my life time! It is sometimes hard to take in facts like that. This area is in line with the Roaring Forties, winds that come across the ocean from South Africa, hit the mountains, rise up and drop their moisture, before continuing on across this vast flat vale, so that whereas the areas on the west coast receive between 5 and 6 metres of rainfall each year, towns on the Plain only receive a few centimetres. This makes irrigation extremely important for wheat, animals and forestry. Huge sprinklers could be seen running the whole length of fields, with special ramps to take them over the farmhouse in some cases. Water is drawn from nearby rivers and streams, which currently look quite dry and “braided”, as their wide channels are separated into small streams by gorse and shrubs growing up between the rivulets. Large tracts of forest have been bulldozed down and are being fertilized to make way for dairy pasture, although it is covered in stones and small boulders from the glacial age, which is now more profitable.

Large numbers of Asian people came to this area under the Government’s new Immigration Scheme, but they were unskilled for the work required. The Laws were amended and now they are trying to entice only people with the experience in trades required to come here – such as Ukranain farmers.

We stopped at Geraldine for lunch – Pauline (from Felixstowe) stopped a lady in the street and asked which town we were in, and the lady replied Geraldine. Pauline said, I am not asking your name, I asked which town we are in, and again the lady replied Geraldine – I think Pauline fell in then! It was another sleepy strip of shops, several cafes, souvenir shops. clothes outlets (some looked quite modern), and an Art Gallery dealing mainly in Maori paintings – not our style, but very good at faces. We found a quiet café for a drink and carrot cake, before wandering back to the coach.

Soon after lunch the scenery changed quite suddenly from flat pastureland to undulating terrain. We passed through Fairlie, named after an Ayrshire town, which in the snows last June had fallss over one metre high, and the town was without electricity, phones, and water for up to 2 ½ weeks. When the snows did melt, the pipes in the houses all burst, and there were not enough plumbers to cope with the repairs, even though many were drafted in from nearby towns. BT is responsible for maintaining the phone systems here (need I say more!), and they were in trouble, because the exchanges are run on battery back up, which could not be recharged as they ran down as there was no electricity – so no land line phones. Just outside the town is an Avenue of Oaks – trees planted after the First World War in remembrance.

As we passed through Burke’s Pass the scenery changed again to a high flat basin, surrounded by rounded hills, covered in dry yellowy scrub, the overall vista looking barren and uninviting. Here the rainfall is less than 10 cms a year, and it is extremely cold in winter – temperatures easily dropping below -20 degrees C. Michael Burke came up here in 1855 with a flock of sheep that roamed the basin, kept in by dogs in kennels at the entrances – hence one of the corners is known as Dog Kennel Bend.

This region as a whole is known as MacKenzie (we are staying at the Mackenzie Country Hotel tonight) after James Mackenzie, a Scotsman who came to New Zealand in the early 1850’s, with his dog called Friday, as a musterer, working near Invercauldy. He decided he wanted to own some land and raise sheep himself, so he came to this region looking for work to earn enough money to purchase land. The dog was supposed to be very intelligent, and Mackenzie could give him orders about the sheep, and go off for a night in the pub. But one night a farmer complained that his sheep had been stolen and when the Police searched the area, they found Mackenzie and his dog with the sheep in this basin area. Mackenzie was arrested, tried and jailed for rustling, but broke out of prison a couple of times. The last time he was found boarding a boat bound for Sydney. He was taken back to jail, where he convinced his jailer that he had been paid to rustle these sheep, and when the Police were further questioned they admitted that they had seen two other men running away when Mackenzie was captured. The judge overturned the sentence, on the condition that Mackenzie left New Zealand for good. No one is quite sure if he did leave the country or just moved districts.

Our next stop was at Lake Tekapo, a large crater formed by the Godly Glacier, and fed with water from the surrounding mountain streams. The scenery here was unreal – huge jagged snow-covered mountains, including Mount Cook, formed the backdrop to this brilliant turquoise lake. The sun was out, it had become very warm and the air was so clear. The only sounds were those of the three coach loads of tourists which had descended on the beauty spot. On the bank of the lake stood a small stone church - The Church of the Good Shepherd. The foundation stone was laid by the Duke of Gloucester in January 1935 and the church completed later that year. There were very strict rules about leaving the site undisturbed – the local “weed”, matagouri (looks like rosemary but with inch long thorns), had to remain (it grows in a thick line at the back of the shore), rocks in line with the walls were not to be removed, and stones used for building brought from a radius of 5 miles, were to remain in a natural condition – it is surprising that the Church was finished as quickly as it was. The original wooden roof shingles were replaced in 1957 by slates. On entering the tiny chapel, there was a picture window behind the altar with the sun streaming through, which made the whole room “glow”. In a small ‘box’ – vestry? – off to the side at the back, I found the priest sitting in an easy chair eating his lunch. I would have like to interrupt him and ask him some questions about his parish, but it hardly seemed fair to impose on him.

Outside once more, we clambered over the rocks leading down to the lake, wondering at the views. We gathered everyone from our coach together and with this wonderful background our first group photo was taken by the driver of the other AAT Kings coach (Alan and Darryl don’t seem to have any sense of collegiality). The most amusing part was that the older couple – late seventies – that we had seen on the ferry from Wellington on an ATP tour, had obviously now joined the other AAT Kings tour (budget tour running parallel with our tour), were also in our photos – bless them – no one seemed to mind and they enjoyed it.

Water is taken Lake Tekapo by man-made canals to Lake Pukaki and then on to Lake Ohau, via two hydro-electric power stations. The lakes have been dammed so that the water level is maintained and electricity constantly produced. Land surrounding these lakes is full of glacial moraine, deposited as the glaciers receded. There are four main glaciers that have affected the area, each different in colour as they are tinted from the minerals in the terrain over which they are traversing. Fine particles of glacial “flower” saturate Lake Pukaki, making it denser than the other lakes and therefore a deeper peacock blue colour, when the sunlight is reflected. On one of the surrounding hills, Mount John, an observatory was established by the Otago University, at 550 metres above sea level, and three years ago, a photo of a black hole was taken using the telescope here. It is now also supported by Japan’s Osaka University, and a second observatory has been built nearby which is linked in to the largest telescope in the world in South Africa. This area has no industrial or atmospheric pollutions making it ideal for astronomy.

A few of our newcomers had taken a flight over the glaciers this afternoon and after picking them up at the small airfield, we arrived at Twizel (pronounced Tw I zel), and our hotel for the night. It is a modern country hotel, with lots of pine and picture windows, and a golf course. But not a lot else to do – why is it that we arrive early at a place where there is nothing to do, and late at towns and cities where we could amuse ourselves for hours? We soon settled in – still no internet, and no WIFI in the hotel either. Nothing for it, but to catch up for a while on today’s blog (I had managed to write yesterday’s on the coach), before going for a drink in the very pleasant bar. Dinner was another buffet, but the food was extremely good, with a choice of meats in sauces as well as a carvery, vegetables (everywhere still serves broccoli) and lots of salads. Desserts looked large and creamy – so I gave them a miss, but Colin made up for me. He stayed for a few drinks with the ‘boys’ (introducing them all to malt I believe) before returning to find me blogging once more.

Tomorrow we continue south to Dunedin, historically a Scottish town. I am sure we are going to see many more snow-capped mountains and breathtaking scenery like Mount Cook and the surrounding peaks, which is what we came here for. It truly is awe-inspiring, gob-smacking, absolutely fantastic, the best ever – I am not sure how best to describe it, but we truly loved it and look forward to much more. I know now why so many people love New Zealand.