Sunday, December 18, 2011

New Zealand: Days 10-11

Time to finish my New Zealand recaps before I forget what we did!

On our tenth day we left Kaikoura, which was one of my very favourite cities. I'm not sure you could even call it a city, more like a sleepy beach town with amazing scenery. Before leaving we stopped to see another seal colony but unfortunately the tide was out and so were the seals. There wasn't much to see other than a few loners.
The gorgeous view was worth the stop though. Gosh, now that I look back on our pictures I can't believe how beautiful New Zealand is. The pictures simply don't do it justice.
From Kaikoura we continued on to Ashburton but decided to split up the long drive (with our screaming infant) with a stop at Waipara Springs Winery for lunch and a tasting. I've had a craving to guzzle down a whole bottle of wine so many times since Little m was born, but haven't had the chance. This time I was prepared and fed her before we started drinking and I also had a bottle of pumped milk to give her, so I had a grand ole time, finishing off my tastings plus M's!

We spent the evening in Ashburton and got up the next morning to drive through Mount Cook National Park. What a scenic drive! I couldn't believe the colour of the water of Lake Tekapo - a bit difficult to tell from the picture below, but the most beautiful turquoise I've ever seen. The lake is fed by glaciers and the rock dust particles mixed with sunlight create the beautiful colour.
While continuing our drive to Mount Cook we came across sheep crossing!
Tons and tons of sheep coming right for us!
We stopped for lunch in the valley of Mount Cook and this was the view from our table:
You can't get much better than that!
We also took a walk up to the terminal face of Tasman Glacier and what we thought would be a trail walk turned into a steep climb up a mountain! With a baby! Eek!
Glorious!
Stay tuned next time for Twizel.

3 comments:

  1. Great pictures. What a wonderful adventure!!

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  2. Great pics Jilly..kind of reminded me of Banff and surrounding area

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  3. Love the sheep crossing. That's funny!

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