Day 39 Mt Cook to Christchurch

Day 39 Mt Cook to Christchurch

It began raining heavily during the night and didn’t let up at all this morning…We had around 8cm in less than 8 hours…Also, dreadful news that 3 climbers on Mount Cook hadn’t been heard from in 2 days and the weather was too bad to send in mountain rescue…We were right at the foot of the mountain and couldn’t even see it.  Nicole said she was glad at least that we got to see more typical New Zealand weather…

Nicole made us a lovely breakfast in the beautiful common room of our lodge and we then went to explore the Department of Conservation museum and the Sir Edmund Hillary Centre….just a 3 minute walk with umbrella and waterproofs, but we still got soaked. We spent an hour looking at all the mountaineering history and wildlife exhibits and watched 2 films at the Hillary Centre: a 3D exploration of Mt Cook and a film about the mountain rescue team – particularly poignant today.  It was interesting to note that the rescuers are all volunteers…they take low-paid maintenance jobs in the national park for the opportunity to work with mountain rescue…It gave us a lot more respect for all the people we had seen gravelling the many hiking trails and tending the drop toilets…..

Once the bus was packed, we drove up to St John’s Observatory….a World Heritage Dark Sky site and Christchurch astronomical study facility.  It is reputedly the windiest place in New Zealand…and with the stormy rain, we were blown the last bit up the hill to the Earth and Sky café for hot chocolate….As we sipped our drinks, the sky miraculously cleared, revealing fantastic views over Lake Tekapo….There had been a wedding party just finishing some rainy and wind blown photos as we arrived….If only they had just waited 20 minutes….  Nicole was astounded; she said that usually that sort of rainstorm lasts all day.  By the time we had driven back down the hill and into St John township for lunch, it was a beautiful day and the colours of the lupins against the turquoise lake, purple mountains and brilliant blue sky provided the photo that will probably be the cover shot for our trip.

For the next 3 hours, we drove across Burke’s Pass and the Canterbury Plains to Christchurch.  We passed farmland and towns such as Fairlie and Geraldine that could have been somewhere in middle America….very flat, green and pleasant…quite different from the dramatic landscape we had left.

We arrived in Christchurch around 5:30, first travelling through the new shopping areas of Riccarton – not badly affected by the earthquakes and where most shops, restaurants and bars have set up as the damaged and unsafe buildings of the CBD are demolished and replaced – then around the enormous and lovely Hagley Parks, and finally around the CBD….vacant lots, boarded and crumbled buildings waiting for demolition and a few temporary street art exhibitions and pop-up cafes.  We are leaving our major exploration of the city for Friday…..so we were happy to check in to our Disneyesque Camelot motel, check out the pool and spa and then go out for a New Year’s Eve dinner at a restaurant down the road.  A bit of bubbly, a lovely meal….and we waved off those who were going to the party in the park.  We stayed up for the midnight fireworks….but decided to do the rest of our celebrating with the UK in 13 hours time….or the US 5 hours after that……