I left the deep south to make my way up the east coast of the south island. Though I'm partial to the west coast, it was still a gorgeous 5 day trip.
First stop Mt.Cook
Ice Skating!!
Yoga pants and Ice skates. #chic
Lake Tekapo
In between the snow and the plains, we stopped in Rangitata.
Largest Knit Sweater in the World
A very special toilet
Triple bunks!!
How has it taken me this long to take a sheep selfie?!
Though this picture isn't the best, it symbolizes New Zealand to me. There are palm trees, snow, and lots of sheep.
That's NZ.
New Zealand has an obsession with titles. Biggest/Highest/Rainy-est city in the hemisphere/world/country. This town is known to be the Salmon capital of New Zealand, so naturally it had a gigantic Salmon statue. This is not rare at all. I've seen giant statues of Gumboots, Bulls, Fruit Bowls, Carrots, and Kiwis (both the fruit and the bird). I only wish I had been taking pictures of them along the way.
For months I've been told to skip Christchurch. The town was crippled by 3 terrible earthquakes about 4 years ago. Unfortunately, the town has never recovered. So many of my friends told me it was a ghost town and that they struggled to occupy themselves there. I ignored their advice. I couldn't let myself leave New Zealand without seeing it for myself.
My friends weren't wrong. The town is hard to navigate both because there are no buildings but also because there is construction everywhere. It wasn't a boring place to visit but it was challenging. It's sad that the town is still a red zone after 4 years. As you can tell from the pictures below it looks like the earthquake struck much more recently.
Pasta break! Took me an hour to find a single place to eat.
Christchurch: land of the construction cranes
Re:start mall was very cool! It was an entire shopping center built out of shipping containers. These ready made structures were utilized when all other building fell after the earthquakes.
This cathedral was once the most photographed building in NZ
Left Christchurch for the coast of Kaikoura!
Chip and Gravy Buttie!!
Where the mountains meet the sea!
Nerds rope hasn't been discontinued in NZ!!!
At the bottom of this waterfall is a baby seal colony. The seal pups play in the pool during the day and at night go back to the sea to be with their moms. There was only one baby seal when we visited, but he was still super cute!
I'm gonna eat as much pie as I can before I leave NZ. Can't believe we don't have these in the states!
Finally made it to Picton! This city is the port of south island, all the ferrys from Wellington dock here.
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