Canterbury & Christchurch

Leaving the rain behind us, we set out from Dunedin (A), stopping to see some sights in Canterbury on our way to Christchurch (G), the South Island's largest & New Zealand's second largest city.

Ellie at the Moeraki Boulders (B)

The Waitaki Hydro Station ( C )

We stopped for lunch in Twizel (D), after which Ben & I played this HUGE hole of disc golf.

This is Hole # 4 on the Twizel Frisbee Golf course

Aoraki/Mount Cook from the Lake Pukaki overlook (E)

The Church of the Good Shepherd on Lake Tekapo (F)

After arriving in Christchurch (G), we were shocked to see the extent of the devastation in the downtown area still left by the earthquakes 2010 & 2011.  We had heard about it of course, but nothing could have prepared us for what we saw.  Many of the damaged buildings have been taken down and the few left standing are slated to be removed, with the exception of just a few hotels that were repaired and just reopened.  We stayed right on Cathedral Square - which was difficult to navigate because of all the road closures & demolition still taking place.

The view of The ChristChurch Cathedral from our hotel room

View of the front Christchurch Cathedral

The Transitional Cathedral (aka The Cardboard Cathedral) is the temporary home of the Anglican congregation displaced by the destruction of their Cathedral.  It was amazing to see.

Many of these green spaces & art installations take advantage 

of the abundant space made available by the removal of 1,350 damaged buildings

Because many of the central area shops & restaurants were damaged or destroyed, a new shopping & eating area has been created out of shipping containers.  It was impressive to see what they could make out of these simple metal boxes.  There was also a really cool museum dedicated to the earthquake experience & stories of those affected by the quakes.

Re:START Mall

Watching some Maori buskers

The Canterbury Museum

Our last afternoon, we drove out to Sumner for some time at the beach watching the surfers and getting some awesome Mexican food at the Headless Mexican.  Mexican food is scarce in NZ as it is & good Mexican food is even more exceptional!

The beach at Sumner

Surfers lined up & waiting for a choice wave

In 2012, Lonely Planet recommended Christchurch as one of the TOP 10 cities in the world to visit in 2013.   Having visited, I feel very fortunate to have seen & supported Christchurch at this moment in history.  Their 'Rebuild Plans' are very ambitious and exciting.  I am eager to monitor the recovery progress and, God willing, return to Christchurch one day - when the new precincts are complete.

Online Interactive Map

Dunedin

Departing Queenstown (A), it was yet another day in the car traveling to Dunedin (B), where we stayed two nights and one full day.  The rain was quite heavy so we did not get out on the peninsula or the beach, but rather spent the day in the city. Our hotel was near the octagon so many sites were within walking distance.

Dunedin is the second largest city on New Zealand's South Island and the principle city in the region of Otago.  Dunedin (Celtic for Edinburgh) was established by Scottich immigrants and is characterized by an abundance of Gothic Revival architecture.

St Paul's Cathedral & Dunedin Town Hall

Dunedin's First Church of Otago

Otago University, Clock Tower

The historic Dunedin Railway Station

Julia & a blurred Ben

Baldwin Street Souvenir shop

Baldwin Street - the steepest street in the world!

After touring the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, Julia declared this the best place in the whole South Island!

The chocolate waterfall was Julia's favorite!

Pizza at Ratbags - delicious!

Dunedin was Julia's kind of town.  After visiting there, Julia now has a life plan.  When she's grown up she wants to move to Dunedin and work at Ratbags Pizza and the Cadbury Chocolate factory.  We're so proud of her goals! :)

Queenstown

We travelled from Haast Pass (A) to Queenstown (B) where we spent the longest amount of time on the South Island.  We could have spent the entire two weeks there and still have not done it all! We'll just show pictures from a few of the highlights.

Queenstown has the reputation as being the adventure capital on New Zealand. It is the home of Bungy jumping, so we HAD to do that (or at least Ellie and Mimi did).  The girls chose to jump off the Kawarau bridge which is the original site where AJ Hackett created this crazy sport.

After the Bungy jumping, we tried a little adventure that the whole family could enjoy.  We took the Skyline Gondola up Bob's Peak to enjoy the fantastic view of Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu, and the Remarkables.  Once at the top we all had a fun time doing the luge!

The boys found a great frisbee golf course in Queenstown Gardens while the girls had a chance to look around the shops and markets.  

We had really good luck with restaurants in Queenstown.  We especially enjoyed The Cow and Fergburger.

And the best snack shop ever: CookieTime!  CookieTime cookies are sold at the grocery stores, dairies, and petrol stations but this is a real shop where they are served WARM!  They were amazing. We went there more times than I care to remember...

On our way to Queenstown we stopped by Webb's Fruit Orchard where we stocked up on the most delicious cherries, nectarines, apricots, plums and peaches.  So we had some fruit to balance out all the cookies.

About 20 minutes from Queenstown is Arrowtown, a very charming and historic gold-mining town.  

This part of the main street still has all of the original miner's cottages

Mimi teaching at the museum school

And her best student, Julia

Checking out the Chinese village

Mimi and Ellie at the Brittish candy shop

Here are our digs while we were in Queenstown.  The apartment gave us plenty of room to spread out and also, not a bad view..

We truly fell in love with Queenstown.  It's a good thing we weren't placed here for a year, or we may not want to come home!  We all hope to come back again...