Category: New Zealand

We stayed on the lake in Te Anau but didn’t walk on a really nice path by it – too busy, too windy and so…But here is how Te Anau looks like: There are a lot of trees with those red berries, that we have in Lithuania (sermuksnis) and they are the first callers for autumn:Here is the view from our window:The next morning we drove where everybody drives from Te Anau – to Milford Sound it is one of the fiords to Tasman sea and the only one reachable by car. The distance 120 km one way. And a beautiful way – lots of stops with views. Here is Gun Lake::Here are Mirror lakes: And the views all the way: We did a short hike from Divide stop, saw a very wet forest but the trail was dry and pleasant – just exotic moss hanging from trees witnessed how much rain they are awarded with and how lucky we were not to get any! The slopes of all the mountains there were so steep that I think I never saw such steep in my life. Therefore there were waterfalls falling all over. This one was the tallest one I ever saw: Then there was a 1.2 km tunnel, one way. not s much fun :-):We stopped to see the Chasm and in the parking lot this mean lookingkea parrot was amusing travelers: This is the walk to Chasm and then the roaring water falling way down in between strange rocks: Then at last we found ourselves by the edge of Milford Sound and it was beautiful with the prominent Mitre peak in the middle (it is as if 1.6 km high, sticking from the sea!):ￂﾠ We booked beforehand and took a Juicy Cruise for 1h 35 min (had to be 1h 45 min :-))> but the views were much more photogenic form the shore versus from the ship. The Cruise was not interesting at all, for me it was a waste of money but lots of people like drinking beer on a boat versus on a shore or others like talking selfies ￂﾠ-so for them such a cruise was fun. Here are some pics form the cruise: But after it we walked some on the boardwalks and trails by the parking lots and here are the pics from there: Bye bye Fiordland, we are heading to Wanaka!

Here is the view form our window in Curio Bay:And the manager’s dog Izzy, the best behaved small dog I ever met:Very typical native plants:And very typical animals: 🙂 In the morning we walked on the beach by our lodge, it wasn’t sunny, therefore no dolphins. But there we still enthusiasts swimming. Also – there is a school for surfers in the waves – the waves there are really good for starters.Then we drove to one more track ￂﾠ-to a big patch of the Catlins Coastal Rainforest. ￂﾠThe first part of the trail was good and striking as those forests are, but then we decided to proceed further towards a waterfall. they wrote that round trip it would be 6.5 km, not so much. But the trail was simple. just a path in the forest, though there were steps from tree trunks dome here and there, lots of climbing up and down, but the biggest problem was the mud. It was all over, all the way. I thought that mud is only on lower parts of the trail, no way. the higher we climbed- ￂﾠthe muddier. The waterfall we at last reached was not bad, but the price is too high :-). Then going back we seemed to pick a shorter part of the trail in the forest. but in reality it was so long. that it seemed to me that we will be going in that forest for the rest of our lives and never find a way out…:-). The mud there is black, very sticky and hard top wash out from shoes or clothes, very slippery. At last we got out from like hell and my opinion about deforestation in New Zealand slightly changed :-). Here is what we saw at the beginning, and the waterfall, by the end of the hike I was not taking pictures at all : We got so tired that didn’t stop till we reached Invercargill, some 90 km from there. it is the most Southern city in NZ, very flat and has some distinction. But the winds were so bad. that we could only see some from car window and after a meal go and enjoy our nice motel room: It was a very windy period in Invercargill. So the next day we drove around a little, and stopped to see their museum. It was interesting as every museum here, apparently the first settlers lived quite fancy lives: but the main attraction were tuataras ￂﾠ-the oldest reptiles on planet. They have quite a few of them and the movie tells all about their passions and lives. the oldest one is Henry, he is 111 years old. he had a bad temper- ￂﾠwhen they tried to give him a girlfriend in order for them to mate – ￂﾠHenry ate the girl’s tale…Then they put another male tuatara to his cage, so he almost killed him…That guy recovered for a few months, but then became such a prolific farther to a lot of tuatara eggs, that they had to seclude him from girlfriends because of genetic reasons- ￂﾠtoo many of his genes were spread around in ￂﾠa very small diminishing tuatara community. So what happened was very sad – ￂﾠhe died…His immune system gave up because of the lack of sex…To think of it :-). Meanwhile Henry got cancer, was operated, healed and became very tame and good breeder! So now they are raising baby tuataras and supplying other zoos with them, also letting them out into the nature. Henry is in the top photo: Then we drove to Sir Andersen’s mansion and park. the mansion is closed,. but the park is open for everyone to enjoy. he was a prominent businessman in Invercargill, was knighted in England for his service, then ￂﾠestablished that park with his wife and left it for the nation: Sir Andersen was very much into maori culture, so he bought their temple and brought it to his park: And I am very much into dahlias as you can notice :-).
From Invercargil we drove the scenic route through Riverton and around the southern shores of NZ, stopped here and there, got exhausted from beautiful views: Monkey island – where Maori used to look into the sea: Until we reached Manapouri – it is one of the towns where they organize trips to the fiords. Our destination was te Anau ￂﾠ-a bigger town of fiordland entrance. Both are by lakes, but I think M. has more beautiful mountain views. Though Te Anau is in a closer location to fiords. Te Anau is in the next post.

 

Deforestation…because of greediness…seems like everything bad in the world is because of greediness. Maybe lots of ￂﾠgood also ￂﾠ- the civilization wouldn’t have developed if it wasn’t for greediness…And we wouldn’t have managed come so far to see all the wonders of New Zealand nature! The remnants of old, like Jurassic era forests are here, in the Catlins! They are sacred to Maori and some white people, me including. Catlins are the South West part of the South island. Once the white man settled new Zealand, he saw those magnificent tall trees of different varieties and cut them, sent them to his old country…then he brought sheep which graze on all the slopes of the hills and here we have – civilization.

The first turn once we entered The Catlins was towards Kaka Point…What a name, what an address to have :-). It is a nice little town by the ocean, with very beautiful ￂﾠshores, leading to a lighthouse on the Nugget Point: You don’t need to climb that hill or rock. you drive there, but then you walk close to 1 km on a kind of dangerous path – the drop of the slope there ￂﾠis almost vertical, the very end of the trail reminded me of Angel’s Landing trail in Zion :-), so I didn’t do it, Andrei did. So I wanted to take his picture while he was going down from the lighthouse – and here is who I got :-): I love paths..they have a promise, a hope and a mystery:This is a Roaring Bay – Yellow Eyed penguins live there, but from our experience and from what we read – it is very tricky to happen to see them…instead – I was admiring the color of the sea! Once the sun is out -the ocean is fantastic!: Owaka is a little bigger town on the way. The peculiar thing we noticed there was a Teapotland:

Then we drove through the Catlins Coastal rain-forest park. it doesn’t mean that the fores was all over – ￂﾠonly a patch here and there: The forests are such that without a path you could not enter it. But there are pats, especially to waterfalls, and a lake, all have little labels by trees- telling the name of the tree species! here is Purakaunui Falls – a very sacred place!:Some trees are hollow inside, but still growing up, still alive!A bridge to Papatowai:The most important place in Papatowai – Lost Gypsy Gallery and cafe ￂﾠ- featuring Steampunk art – ￂﾠit was closed on Wednesday, ech…But there was a phone on the path telling us about the rules and all :-): Their mail box:There was a beautiful lookout on the way: Walked to this beach through the forest, some trees ￂﾠhave this peculiar bark:Entrance to the beach: A swamp with a boardwalk:And the clouds gathered to a very pouring rain, but we still managed to shoot ￂﾠthose figurines on a lake:That was the end of the day. We reached lazy Dolphin Lodge ￂﾠin Curio Bay- right on the sea shore and settled down happy to have a roof ￂﾠin his rain. But the next morning was sunny and bright -and the dolphins were playing in the Porpoise Bay ￂﾠ-so here is how our Lodge looks like from the ocean and from the street: It is a very good place to stay – big rooms with sea views, comfy beds and 2 kitchens, two spacious living rooms!ￂﾠHere are some views of Curio Bay, where people come to swim with dolphins for free (as Austrian guys told me they did :-)), and also to watch shags and yellow eyed penguins:This down here is petrified forest – when the tide is down you can see tree trunks in those rocks: Those “falls” are called Niagara :-). With humor. I wouldn’t call them “falls”, but the land surveyor did:
The skies were again starting to get cloudy so we drove back 30 km to McLean Falls, which we didn’t manage to see yesterday. The walk was through the exotic forest and the falls were striking, too: Those are clumps of moss on tree stumps: Here it is not moss, those are tree tops so well nit together by the shore: And – lots of sheep everywhere-typical!

the last evening in Curio bay we were lucky-we saw even 5 penguins, not the tiny ones, ￂﾠbut bigger ones- ￂﾠYellow eyed, not from close by and not in very daylight. but in twilight. So here are some pics we tried to make: They were very cute, we watched for an hour or more 🙂

We stayed in Sawer’s Bay Air B&B for 4 nights. The ownersￂﾠAnita and Steve areￂﾠvery friendly, their little daughter Akvile brought us plums :-). here is she and her dad, the new yellow shoes being the most important detail in this picture:Anita is a Steampunk artist ￂﾠ- this is her creation – the coat and hat from recycled or up-cycled materials that she dressed on me:The place is clean and the bedding was very comfortable. We had good desks for working on PC’s, good internet, just not enough time for that. The place is very quiet at night, just amazingly quiet. You can see the unusual stars and constellations if you are lucky to get clear skies. The only discomfort for those who like comfort are the toilet and the shower- they are outside. Other than that – the water is warm, the facilities are well established. You would think that 3 days in Dunedin area are enough. But it was not…It is really an amazing place! So many things to do and visit. The last day of our stay there was especially busy – we walked around a part of Port Chalmers peninsular, then drove up the hill to the highest point for the views of the harbor: This bush looks to me like chicken-wire, doesn’t it?:The very first thing that strikes you once you get to New Zealand and that doesn’t leave me since – is that the country is especially neat and tidy. ￂﾠEverywhere, even the docks by the ports. They have a nature path by the Charmers port which is planted on both sides by native bushes and plants, so that you walk and look at the waters and don’t even notice the warehouses, etc. I guess it comes from their English heritage. Then we rushed up the mountain on top of where we stayed – to an Orokonui ￂﾠEco-sanctuary. And that was amazing! The views are good as always from a top of a hill, but the walks…Through bush and forest and rain forest with those super tall and big trees of different kinds…with birds singing around and big Kea parrots eating and making noisy sounds and also three very special and rare ￂﾠwild hens called Takahe ￂﾠeating from their feeder. This is the very hardly gotten or raised baby, his beak is till not red, therefore- ￂﾠbaby. The other is adult: They lay only 1 egg a year, and if it is not a fertile egg – no offspring. Therefore very endangered. ￂﾠThey are close relatives to Pukeko hens, but much bigger. This is the oldest reptile in the world- dates to dinosaur times. Tuatara, and he lives up to 200 years, but is also endangered: This is local Otago Skink:Kea parrot: The tallest tree of New Zealand grows in this Ecosanctuary, but not this tree, this is Miro tree. They said the tallest tree is Eucalyptus. We didn’t see it, no time to walk some 2 km to it :-). There are lots of tracks in that park. Some more views: From there we rushed to the city again, walked a little in the South part of it known for the big murals on some empty walls: One more Victorian house typical to Dunedin:Dunedin train station ()didn’t have a chance to walk by it, took picture from car window…):We watched a show in a new Planetarium. in Otago museum, which is considered the only one so advanced the the Southern hemisphere. They explined us about all Solar system planets, about the constellations we can see here and what Southerns Cross constellation meant to sailors. It was good. And still our program was not over – ice cream eating in the park and then again driving to a beach past Sawer’s Bat, past Port Chalmers ￂﾠ-Aramoana beach -right across from the end of Otago peninsular, and it was just super beautiful…I would call it ￂﾠ- sea, sands and lava, where they meet and mingle: This looks like some abstract art, but it is a sea weed: A lone seal, probably wondering – what are we doing here, why don’t we just lie down and rest… And while we sat on the sunny part of the beach with a hope to see some penguins – the cruise ship left the bay in a very elegant way:Going back, enjoying the sunny evening:

 

This part of the country is called Otago region, everything here is Otago, even the peninsula which shelters Dunedin’s port from the ocean. Today was our Otago Peninsula investigation day. And it was a lot to investigate, ￂﾠwe didn’t fulfill our plan…Driving the road by the waters was pleasant…Here is how Dunedin looks like from the other side of the bay:There is some mansion with gardens on the way, but we just stopped to look what it is , admired some flowers and drove further:

This yellow rock attracted my attention, so we stopped to walk towards it and found a cemetery on the very piece of land sticking into the waters, surrounded with very big trees. A good place to grieve and see how beautiful nature is…hoping it eases the pain… No, we didn’t dare to walk on this narrow path to the very land’s end…:-)

Here weￂﾠstopped to see an Edwardian house of historical significance, which looked very ordinary to me:

and views and views of the bay, of the peninsula hills, of the land’s end where Kiwi’s got scared of a Russian war ship an age ago and built some fortifications with a canon or two! :-), yes there is such a funny story here. as if it is true. But no picture of canon, we are not interested in such things. So here at the very end of the peninsula is a preserve for Royal Albatroses, which are very graceful birds and their wing span is the biggest in the bird world – more that 3m…they glide. A very pleasant sport to watch them from there! here is their yearly life schedule: There are some tracks, as they call them here, or walks, as we call them in the US. We did one of them – towards the ocean. The drive is on back-road – unsealed, but not bad. The walk was not short, it took us 2h return, with some time on the shore…At first it goes so straight that i wondered – who put ￂﾠa liner or what to make it so straight:Those two volcanic hills are called pyramids!A young investigator 🙂This walk through the dunes was like returning to my childhood, to our walks in Nida’s dunes in Lithuania by the Baltic sea…Lots of nature here reminds so much of Lithuania – both countries have such amazing views… The flowers I never saw growing in the sand by the beach…The shore is very strange- ￂﾠthe sea makes just a very narrow line – I wonder why? Just some waves and a horizon – where is the ‘body” of the sea? A lot of space to walk in solitude, the sand fine and white as in Lithuania, and very pleasant for feet. Well, not complete solitude – there was a sea lion sleeping on the beach and another wanted to get out to do the same, but saw us and changed his mind…I guess, we are not attractive to him as he is to us. but i didn’t manage to take his picture, instead, took a movie :-).ￂﾠ And then it was close to evening and we went home…

“Keep left” -that was what David in Christchurch was telling us every morning when we were leaving. So now we always repeat before driving – keep left! Each time still when Andrei makes a turn – my heart sinks for I think we are on the wrong side of the road ;-). Takes time to get used to. So here we drove from Oamaru towards Dunedin on a scenic road, stopped to walk on a beach where there was nobody, except Julie – ￂﾠthe local very friendly woman with her dog:The first goal was Moeraki boulders – we have seen them last time we were here. but it was too short for us, or maybe we miss things we like. Luckily – the tide was low and we could reach them easily. But crowds…Kids jumping up on them and down and mingling around – it was tough to take pictures. Those boulders keep a secret of how they appeared or got created but forces: This one is split apart – again, why? How/ And the insides of it are very much like geode rocks, covered with crystals. Nobody is protecting them people are stepping on them, beating with hard objects the nice crystal surfaces…Someone made an ‘art” from the sticking top of the boulder:

From this beach we drove already directly to Chalmers Port ￂﾠ-a real port in a bay of island and inlets north of Dunedin. The views were very green rolling hills – nice. The road is very narrow, so we couldn’t stop where the views were really good, here are some of the medium ones: Here is how we saw the area from the hill we had to go over. The roosters came once we stopped and started eating bugs form the car’s front :-)ￂﾠ This is the Port at Chalmers:The house we stay at is on the other side of the hill and the place is called ￂﾠCosy Room at ￂﾠSawer’s Bay – you have to drive through a small road to get there:We have a very good bed and another room for working on PS’s and a kitchen downstairs and a toilet and shower houses outside. The views from our windows are so good!The Otago museum in Dunedin, full of stories about humanity, nature, etc. Otago is the whole areas name. There is also the Otago peninsula, where we’ll go next.ￂﾠThe mouth of a whale – the whole skeleton is here. but how to photo it? 🙂Moa skeletons, the big birds that were extinguished by indigenous people, sad…A close relative of Moa still alive. but very much endangered – kiwi!The clothes of this native man prepared for hunt or fight – they are something!The regular houses in Dunedin – almost all of them of this Victorian style:Dunedin Botanical gardens: This is the strangest flower i have seen! Those cyclamens look nothing special – but they are super small, my camera enlarged them!ￂﾠ A beautiful family picnicking in the gardens:
Dunedin University, one of the buildings:The city is known for its murals:St. Paul’s cathedral:The Art Museum: First Presbiterian Church;

 

 

It is 140 km to Oamaru from Twizel. But we made a little loop around lakes. There are many lakes in a string by the road ￂﾠ- there are power stations and therefore the artificial lakes. Those are not so blue, more like normal lakes, some even reminded me Lithuanian lakes. Only that those naked desert mountains in the background were not Lithuanian looking at all: Here the view is from the Dam. The water is super clear and not cold at all, but somehow we didn’t have any willingness to immerse into it… Then on the way there were little towns with an Anglican church and flowers around: Some limestone formations with ancient Maori writings on it. The writings are made in red, nobody knows what they mean and in addition – they mostly are not there- only the drawing with a punctured line showing which peaces of stone with them were taken away to museums all over the world: The house we are staying at in Oamaru is on the emerald sea, with some rails in between :-), and a car park in front :-). but still beautiful. the room is very spacious and here is how the common living room looks like:New Zealanders own this place and to me it seemed good aesthetics! They are called Coastal Apartments, found them on booking.com. Nice as it was in the room, where we even have a big table for eating and also using our PC’s, with the view to the ocean:We went to investigate the area. Here is is the view of town and port from a blue penguin nesting grounds. The wave breaker is good to walk on and watch the fur seals: The blue penguins, which are considered the smallest in the penguin world are coming out only after dark. Their colony used to live there since the beginning and after people built Oamaru ￂﾠ-they keep being conservative and come to their breeding and resting grounds every night.
So people built little houses for them in special protected areas. But still -to me it was scary too see how they walk on the streets at night where cars drive and tourists crave for their pictures and some use flashes…And also there are cats and seals, all hungry…Poor little penguins, here are some of them taken with special light: The first eve we drove to another place – behind the steep hill on a steep cliff above Yellow eyed penguin breeding beach: We and a crowd of watchers were patient enough and waited and looked onto this beach for 2 hours, till dark, and we looked and we looked till my eyes started clouding and I learned every nook of that beach by heart – no penguins appeared, zero. Maybe they saw us many people and were afraid, or maybe the seals lying on the beach scared them… So their chicks somewhere in the bushes were starving…At least some seals down there entertained us a little with their sleeping habits and coming out of the water or going in. If not for the cute little penguins in the center of the city that we saw later, around 10 pm – it would have been a disappointment…Here is a hole into one of the house cellars close to the beach – where penguins go every evening to rest or raise chicks:But enough about penguins ￂﾠ- the city is known for its strong heritage and creativity. Here we are participating in an excursion ￂﾠ-the guide is dressed in period and we noticed some others walking on the streets dressed in 19th century English clothes!They are also known for their Ordinary bikes:
Steampunk is a trend in art. There are pieces of it in and around this old granery – yes, this fancy building as well as some others was used to store grain! This piece is created by Chris Meder, who was very intensive, creative and productive and is gone…form cancer…sad, his creatures seem to have a soul: More pictures from Oamaru downtown:

Most of te ￂﾠhouses were built from local sandstone. The houses seem very grand for such a small town – the guide said that in 1860’s it was the grandest city in New Zealand andￂﾠￂﾠthe most mortgaged one…Those city people sure had a feeling of self respect! Like real Brits! Here is a creative way to use the trunks of dead trees:There are several galleries. We didn’t visit all of them, just a couple. This one looked enticing from outside and once we got inside…the artist who owns it is here in the pic and she said that most of the paintings and weird things in the gallery she made herself: We also visited the Anglican Church: And another gallery where an exhibit of some artist at first seemed a little weird. but then i felt lots if real art in it. It was called Crazy Thread or something…where the artist used threads in such a variety of ways, here are some:Yes, those are tiny sweaters and here are figurines:Every evening there is a light show on the facade of the opera theater:And very empty streets…Where else can one find such a good city! Loved it! Go and stay there at least 3 days, no less. There is so much to see and do there and so good to relax.

It is 65 beautiful kilometers from Twizel to Mt. Cook village. Therefore make reservations in Twizel beforehand, all the lodgings were full when we came. We made our reservations in 3 months ago and still could find only a single night in different places. Both had their pluses and minuses, the Holiday park huts had very thin walls and German young guys are very big and loud speakers :-). But both places were bearable. In totality you don’t feel like you are in New Zealand while in tourist areas- ￂﾠChinese people are in such abundance, the you feel like in China with some Europeans travelling around. For German youth to travel to NZ, as I figured out while cooking with them in a common kitchen, is a piece of cake. they finish school at 18, work for only 4 months and make enough money to travel extensively in NZ for 6 weeks! What a wonderful country Germany is! I guess lots of Arabs figured that out before me, without going to NZ first! :-).

There are several hikes in the valleys with the view of Mt. Cook. It is the highest mountain in New Zealand and has three peaks, the highest is 3724 m. On the way you drive past the length of Lake Pukaki with its unusual color: Then you reach Hookers Valley, with its name funny to Americans. here the trail to Hookers Glacier starts, it is 5km long, 3h return, 90 m altitude gain – which a an easy trail, but seems long: The trail is like a highway – all maintained and done and with steps and boardwalks in several areas. The strange thing- ￂﾠit is a National Park, but they don’t charge any fee for entering it- ￂﾠWhy?..There are three hanging bridges you have to cross over the mountain river far down, scary for those who are afraid of earthquakes and heights: A German woman-specialist of plants said to me that this plant is called Digitalis and is used to regulate heart rhythm! But very scarce flowers were blooming, not like in Utah mountains at this stage of the summer: Lakes that form in the valley higher are kind of milky grey – far from the bluish color below. Maybe ￂﾠthe dirt particles filter while roaring down the stream and the water clears up. The glacier is not beautiful at all – just black with some blue by the lake surface, on the other end of the lake – ￂﾠyou can’t walk to it, and here in the picture a person’t hand is pointing towards it with Mt. Cook on top: Here are glaciers that were on the slopes of the mountains in front of us from closer by, they look much more attractive:

After this trail I felt very tired, the sun was strong and the wind appeared. me, like all the Chinese were covering our faces with scarfs and hats. Andrei found a hat blown down from some tiny Chinese man while on a bridge to the bottom of the river bed – so being young and brave and ￂﾠstrong he climbed down and here he has a hat for the rest of the trip :-). A funny looking hat, but it protects from sun. We were willing to give it to owner- ￂﾠbut nobody asked for it :-). So then we drove to another Tasman valley – and climbed a mountain there (15 min climbing fast on good stairs up)…for the view of the valley to one side and Tasman lake and glacier to another (there are some pieces of glacier ￂﾠseen in the lake): On the way back there was a lavender field, like in Provance 🙂 and a place for people to pose and take pictures:

We left the beautiful Garden city of Christchurch not very early, changed some $ in a bank, where the clerk woman was super pleasant. ￂﾠWaked for the last time through the painful but very nice city center and off we went. 310km ￂﾠto Twizel, which is close to Lake Pukaki ￂﾠ-it took us 6 hours to drive…The road was supposed to be Scenic, which it was in parts. So we stopped ant took some pictures, didn’t hike. The weather was sunny at times and very cloudy in between. In fact, by the end of our drive the clouds were floating so low by the ground and we were not super high – maybe some 500 m above sea level. The rivers we crossed were of unnaturally blueish-greenish color, very bright and the reason is ￂﾠ- they are from glacier water. When the sun shines- ￂﾠit is nice and warm, but when it hides- ￂﾠ a jacket is a must. especially with the winds that we are experiencing here for the third day. Locals say they haven’t had such winds since 2 months ago. but boy, they are strong…We couldn’t enjoy Lake Tekapo at all – the lake is so beautiful from the car windows, but once we got out- ￂﾠwe just wanted to go back and hide…So therefore- ￂﾠno hiking today. Here is Lake Tekapo and the little church in front of it, and me in front of the church with my hair flying in the wind: The clouds were just crawling through the mountains like some big tidal waves: Mt Cook is seen in the middle on the other side of Lake Pukaki. We will try to come closer to it tomorrow.

12 h from LA to Fiji, then 4 more hours and here we are in Christchurch. Again. Only this time after big earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 have hit it. Really big ones. The city has changed, the feeling has changed here, people are very much affected. Driving through the residential areas you cant see much damages, but in the very center of the city they are like wounds or devastated empty fields. (Therefore lots of parking space in the center). The earthquakes have opened a can of quarrels and differences in opinions of whether to restore the damaged buildings or to build them new and modern. It reflects the same views in the suburbs – each house is cute, but very different from its neighbor – some are old style like in Europe, mostly, I guess, in England. Some are Art Deco style. Some are very ultra contemporary with clean lines. But all of them have gardens, flowers in abundance. ￂﾠIt can be compared to Portland, OR, or Canadian West, where it is very green and humid, so good for plants! Here are some pics. This is the house we are staying at, the right part is our bedroom:Dave, the retired journalist is our host, we feel very well here, I highly recommend to stay at his place! it is in a quiet neighborhood, Mairehau, and we have a chance to experience a stay in a real ‘Kiwi’s home and hear his stories. We found the place through Air B&B.

One of the very minimalist houses, looked peculiar to me :-). The sides of it have windows.

Andrei is celebrating his birthday.

Regency street in the center:

This is what is left of their Cathedral…You can look into my old blog from Christchurch in 2009 ￂﾠ-there is a picture of this cathedral intact. Now it is fenced and stays like this until authorities decide what to do…
Here is the municipal building which was very fancy and old…maybe they plan to restore it:

Today we visited the Art center. It has reopened recently after being repaired for 5 years, so they were celebrating – there was a playground for kids in front. The entry is free of charge and there was a booth with free organic ice cream-gelato for everyone! We ate dark chocolate and passion fruit – it was super tasty! The art center has so many windows – they were making terrible noise during the quakes, the employee told me, but none of those windows broke: Pop art…
A view from the art center to Worchester street: Going down Worchester street you reach the Canterbury museum, it looks like a church. but is filled with artifacts about their history and nature, even about expeditions to Antarctica, a very worth to be visited museum. The gate to Botanical gardens is right there and you enter something like paradise, New Zealand nature at its best: Those are real colors, those are hydrangeas… The begonia greenhouse takes one’s breaths away 🙂 Dahlias – like in Lithuania (jurginai)…

And their trees…They are the highlight of every park in NZ, I think, their variety and size has no competition in the world! This little tree is still young, but is the rarest and oldest tree in the world, therefore is kept under a cage. There are less than 100 specimens left in Australia, and his little guy was raised not from seed but from some tissue in a lab, probably cloned, so that not to bring any bad parasite to New Zealand from Australia. It was growing in the times of dinosaurs, We spent the second day in Christchurch…It is an amazing city, so why not.Why to drive somewhere far away, while there are so many things to see here. It was a holiday, so again – very few cars on the streets, the center was very empty. Again we noticed big empty fields in the every center – they are cleaned from debris after the earthquakes and are waiting for investors, I guess. Here they brought a lot of ship containers, painted them beautifully, installed window sides and here is a nice shopping mall in one of devastated areas:Then we walked to the Canterbury museum again, checked Leonardo Da Vinci’s exposition – his paintings with descriptions, his engineering constructs, here is his musical instrument made like a head of a dragon:They have a piece of meteorite that fell onto Arizona – in exchange they gave and Arizona museum some Moa bones ￂﾠ-what an interesting exchange is going between museums! Moa was a big bird somewhat similar to ostrich, and which has been extinguished completely as a species before white people came here…There was an exhibit by Jeff Thomson who is doing art from old rippled roof covers:And then there are replicas of ￂﾠlittle streets of the city in old times. I liked those glass decors in pharmacist’s window:The rest of the day was parks :-). The Hagley park is like Hyde park in London – a very big green area in the middle of the city and there are golf field, sports fields, etc. Botanical gardens are surrounded by the river loop and are also there. Close by there are many other parks, of which we visited only Mona Vale. But before it – we still walked more in the Botanical gardens and here are some more pics: It seems this tree has toes and nails 🙂This tree is from Chile and it is not a cactus. but a tree, very peculiar branches-leaves: Here are some pics from Mona Vale which also has a mansion, but the earthquake damaged it and it is in repairs, so only the park for visitors: Some more long walks through the city:St.Michael’s church:Christ’s college with a theater and two or three churches around the mall: Government:And lots of murals on available walls, especially in the places where houses are gone: The Carton Cathedral – built after the main one was damaged:At the end of the day we drove to their sea shore ￂﾠ-beautiful, people were bathing! seemed too cold and windy for us.