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