Mt. Cook to Auckland

Today the hiking/kayaking trip on the South Island comes to an end and I move on to the rest of my trip on the North Island.  It's a big travel day for most of us, some longer than others, starting with a long 4+ hour drive from Mt. Cook to Christchurch.  Along the way we stopped in Lake Tekapo to admire this cute little church, the Church of the Good Shepherd, right on the banks of the lake.

Couldn't get a good shot of it because the church was in use, but we did peek inside - the front of the church has a picture window that creates a perfect frame for the view of the lake.  It was really picturesque.  The color of the lake is a bit obscured by the clouds, but this lake is a stunning color of blue.  It gets its color from"rock flour" - finely ground particles of rock brought down by the glaciers at the head of the lake and held in suspension by the melt water.

NZ has also had its share of monuments to the oddest things, like deer, and the liberation of sheep.  In Lake Tekapo we found the latest - a monument to the sheep dog.  I couldn't help but chuckle to myself and think, "when people find these monuments 500 years from now, what are they going to think about the things these Kiwi's are celebrating?"

Back on the bus for the last time, things were pretty quiet.  I think everyone was pretty tired after the tough hike yesterday and the active past 10 days we've had.  I know Charles was wiped out! (love the mischievous grin on Kevin's face, and props to Erica for the great photo bomb):

It also took until the last day, but we also experienced two "firsts" for the trip: 1) Rain!  I'm not sure how we got so lucky, especially with how wet the west coast can be, but the weather gods were definitely smiling down on us during this trip; and 2) Josh FINALLY delivered a good farm animal joke! 

Before long we had arrived in Christchurch, and it was time to say goodbye to the new friends we'd made on the trip.  Thanks to everyone, including Josh and Geoff, for making the South Island trip so memorable and so fun.  I had a great time experiencing NZ with you all!  

And so I boarded a plane and the second part of my NZ journey began.  

I arrived to a wet and soggy Auckland.  Having booked this part of the trip at a travel agency only 3 days earlier, and thanks to the lack of any reliable wifi access in this country, I had to stop at the travel agency's branch in the Auckland Airport to pick up my prepaid travel vouchers.  Unfortunately they had not yet arrived, so we had to track down the travel agent who booked everything at her home on a Sunday evening and have her resend everything by email.  It took a while for everything to come through, so I was several hours later getting my hotel than I anticipated.  By that time, St. Patrick's Day was in full swing, and lots of party goers were walking the streets in their green garb.  My hotel seemed to be pretty close to party central, and props to the travel agent - she hooked me up with a sweet as room on the top floor, overlooking Quay street and the Auckland Harbor.  Check out the view!

I had just enough time for a brief walk around downtown Auckland and the harbor.  Auckland's Ferry Building (almost as pretty as SF's ;-) ):

And the Sky Tower, all decked out in green for the holiday:

Not staying in Auckland for long.  Tomorrow I'm on to Hawke's Bay and wine country.