We drove through an area called the Mackenzie Country, a beautiful area with a mixture of flat and hilly land. Most of this area was sheep farmland, but we didn’t see many because we were driving into some thick snow. Now granted it wasn’t an upstate NY blizzard, but it was still coming down pretty hard and the already twisty roads were now covered with slush. Fortunately we had the same driver who navigated the Milford Sound roads, and we made it through to Mt Cook where we were scheduled to take a helicopter ride onto a glacier. Sadly the snow not only cancelled our flight, but also kept Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand, completely hidden from view. The scenery was still gorgeous though, as the freshly fallen snow helped the countryside to match the adjacent mountains.
We then continued on past some large and very blue lakes that were made up of the same “glacial milk” that made up the Dart River in Queenstown.
We stopped to see the Church of the Good Sheppard, a little stone church on the edge of one of these glacial lakes with a splendid mountain backdrop.
We finally crossed into the Canterbury Plains and arrived in Christchurch. Christchurch was originally a settlement formed by the Anglican Church and as such had a very nice old church situated right in the center of the city square.
The next day we traveled along the coastline to a lookout point in Sumner, which has a history of volcanic activity. The lookout point was built on top of an old lava flow that had created a cave right along the beach.
We then crossed over to Lyttleton Harbor, an ancient volcanic cone where one of the walls had collapsed and opened up to the sea, creating the harbor. Spectacular view!
While in Christchurch we were able to visit their museum. The highlight was their new addition - a paua shell house! An Australian couple, now passed away, had covered their entire house with these beautiful shells they'd collected. Now, their house is a museum exhibit!
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