Here At last, Days are running together.

It is Saturday here, today, Friday in Ontario and I am writing about Tuesday.  I used to wonder why bloggers were not more regular in their offerings--now I know. Sue and Mike took away to wander around Christchurch for a while on Tuesday. It was the day that Mike finally felt a tremor.  It took a 5.1 to actually get his attention though  The natives were less than blase about the event.  One engineer was beside the of the cathedral spire in Chch  in a bucket when the event happened. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/4251143/Engineer-grabs-stone-cross-as-church-moves 
Mike found a rather unique car. We will be returning to Chch on Saturday for the market craft market held there every weekend. Finally had a fish and chip meal here--Good fish, great fries.

Here at last--Day Four and Five

Sunday was indeed a day of rest.  Walked to Es's church and experienced Anglican worship using the NZ Book.  Unsurprisingly similar, yet noticibly different, differences are clear as mud but present.  Did not go far from home -- Mike and Es got some more gardening done in the georgeous weather---followed by cocktails on the patio.  Not really a photo type day, not at all like Monday
Monday was another pretty day, but definetly nippy, Es did not have to work until the evening, so we took off with a picnic lunch to see some of the sites.

We started out at Springfield, stopping off at a church there.  We will be back there again in a couple of weeks--I will have the honour of preaching there at that time, but today was just about taking a look.  Just outside the front door we found a new piece of holy hardware--the ecclesiatical boot cleaner.  Wonder what it would be like to have one in one of The Transfig'sChurches. 

Just around that area is a spot where one can get some pretty good shots of east mountains.  They had just been blessed with a fresh dusting of snow so were remarkably pretty.  We didn't go much farther than Springfield today; on Sunday we will go up to Arthur's Pass, one of the corridors to the west side of the island.

We backtracked a bit and went on to view the Rikara.Gorge.  We made a couple of stops there for photographs

The remains of the river that created the gorge are what is known as a 'braided river'.  The day we took our photos of it was the day after a large rainfall in the foot hills, so that, along with the normal spring run off created amazing fast water which is hard to see from the distance of the first photo.  

There are two bridges close together-- Mike took most of his photos at Bridge One whilst I did my snapping at Bridge two.  I asked Es if one could swim in this water in the summer and the response was 'for a minute or so'.  I think that this river, being fed from the Alpine run-off may be the same temperature of Lake Superior in  June.

Even though there are vast areas of dry spots in the river, the tourist is cautioned frequently by signs not to 'walk' the river.  As with any Alpine lowland, there is the danger of  flash floods. 

We were looking at the clouds gathering and expected that it was raining somewhere, but it had been dumping hail instead.

When we stopped to check on the cleanup at the church  in Hororata, we were able to take a picture of the nasty stuff.  Apparently it hails frequently in this area and is, not surprisingly, a real problem.

By the time Es actually took this picture the hail had been done for half an hour.  There did not seem to be any damage to the nearby vehicles, but the grownd was covered with the nasty stuff.  Darfield only about a twenty minute drive from Hororata did not experience much rain at all, so we were finally able to gather the

Here at Last--Days Two and Three

Friday, after a few long and tedious telephone calls, Mike discovered that the luggage was indeed in Christchurch. Somewhere.  The airport promised to deliver said luggage when it's precise location was nailed down.  Jet lag was horrendous on Friday, to the point of extreme politeness between the two travellers.  Es decided that it was time to enact an intervention, and took us on a tour of some of the towns and churches on the Banks Peninsula.  Pea was in the process of making his wonderful bread as well as preparing for work, so we were free to leave the premises knowing that someone would be there for the bags. (they arrived at three).

We set off about noon, temperature which had been cool in the morning, was beginning to rise, but it was quite windy yet.  We had a bit of difficulty finding the churches--we think we zoomed by the church in Gebbes valley as we made our way down from the Canterbury plains to the sea.  The next church, in Teddington also remained elusive--we did find the larger church in Diamond Harbour.

The drive from Diamond Harbour to Port Levy was hair raising to say the least.

We discovered the mountain cow, a distant cousin of the mountain goat. The roads were as winding and turning as those of Cyprus, but the traffic is much lighter and all that we found were paved. 
We took a look inside the little church in Port Levy.  The altar candles were all askew--Es posited that this was a result of the earthquake as the church had not likely been used since easter. The graveyard was quite lovely--the ground covered with a pine cone shaped like a rose.


The scenery, although frequently frightening is stunning.

We drove back up the coast again back to Governor's Bay and handily found the church there.  St. Cuthberts's, a heritage building and one of the original churches in this diocese and province, was badly damaged by the September 4th quake.  Its historical importance may be a factor in any re-building decisions. 
We stopped at Diamond Harbour for a drink, Mike and I had a drink, Es was given a fizzy something as we were NOT letting her even have a sip of bad stuff-- and returned home to our own jammies.
One tidbit of information that I learned today was.....one has to wear more sunscreen in NZ, as the ozone layer is much thinner. (remember the hole in  the ozone layer in Antarctic?)\

Day Three we hit the floor running out the door to the A&P, no, not the grocery store but the county fair or Agricultural and Pastoral, this time in Ellesmere. It was a good sized event.  Tractors, sheep, chickens. sheep, beef cattle, dressage, not to mention alpaca. The elongated chap on the left is not poor photography on my part--but a very long necked example of duckhood, an Indian duck.  I saw limousin and charolais cattle, as well as this lovely beast below the Galloway -- a beef cattle.  They are probably found somewhere in Canada, but I have yet to have the pleasure of seeing one.

On the fair food front; I had my first A&P sausage there.  Absolutely disgusting--large grey slug on a piece of cold white bread, ketchup, fried, onions and NO mustard.  The people serving it were lovely and informative, but trust me, don't waste your money on the product. The lamb on a hotdog bun was marginally better, but still processed. Es munched (and gave me a bite) of a fresh Cornish Pasty. (She`d done this gig before....).  Next time I am trying the lamb on a bun which Es has approved as appropriate.  I did buy some alpaca merchandise there, as well as some delightful garlic product.

At one point a sheep escaped the pen and bolted for freedom--I have never seen any thing jump so high in my life.  We also got to see an Alpaca decide that it was NOT GOING TO BE SHOWN and promptly sit down.  The owner picked up its hind legs and `wheelbarrowed`it toward the pen.  Alpaca then plopped down on its front legs and was eventually picked up by its by then absolutely disgusted handler. I really like these folks, they remind moe of e-woks from the second "Starwars" movies.
We left for home about noon as Pea had to go to work.  Mike and Es worked in the garden all afternoon in the lovely weather. I had done my garden stint the day before, and simply enjoyed the day.

Here At Last--Day One

I can’t believe I am in New Zealand...probably because the part of us that actually thinks is still mid-Pacific. Our suitcases have still not arrived—I believe that Air New Zealand is claiming that it is Delta’s fault.  I imagine that this may be the case; simply because we had a rapid change of planes in Detroit,  Even had the luggage made that switch in there was no way for the baggage to be transferred to Air New Zealand in the short time that we had to change terminals in San Francisco, barely catching the international flight ourselves.

The airport is amazing in Christchurch (hereafter known as Chch).  The duty free, where one can purchase up to three bottles of alcohol, is situated before going through customs. While waiting to pick up luggage, you notice small dogs accompanied by handlers dashing around the airport apparently collecting pats.  While you play with the dogs for a moment, they climb over your carry on luggage and then are tugged away by the handler.  What a great way to be shaken down for drugs.

It was very early when Pea collected us from the airport, taking us on our introductory trip about the island.  We had a quick look at some of the damage done to the city, and then went on to the sea side—I think it was Monk’s bay.  While we were ordering a coffee in the little shop there, we were surprised by Es, who was in a meeting nearby.  After a quick visit with her, we moved on to have a great lunch at Indian restaurant and then continued the tour, this time off to see some of the earthquake damage. Surprisingly tips are not expected in New Zealand.  The bill includes the taxes, which are then broken down after the total is printed.

One of the first signs of the effects of the quake was on Telegraph Road which formerly in a straight line and now rearranged by the fault line.  Below is the coninuation of the fault line into a nearby wood lot.  Unfortunately tourists are discouraged from going into the trees as they are now considered to be 'unstable'.

Our final stop on the Quake Tour was the church at Hororata.  It was  very beautiful structure built in 1911 in memory of Rose Hall following a bequest of her husband, John. He was the 12th prime minister of New Zealand. Hall took an active interest in women's rights. He moved the Parliamentary Bill that gave women in New Zealand the vote (1893), (the first country in the world to do so).

The final piccie for the day (below) is what is left of the beautiful church, St. John's.  The  steeple collapsed during the quake and fell into the organ--itself piece of history, having been orginally installed in Christchurch Cathedral.  So far the parish and the community are hoping to repair the structure, however the extent of the damage has yet to be completely assessed.  First, the tower has to be dismantled, the known problem areas buttressed and a full engineering survey completed.  The whole area is now fenced in to prevent further looting of the bricks for sale on e-bay. The parish hopes to celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.

Our first day ended rather early, following a great supper made by our host, and a quick visit with Es, when she came back from work. We went to  bed with visions of suitcases dancing in our heads.