We were able to do a lot while we were down there, so I have split this trip up into two posts...
Jorgen is also the Danish Consulate for the South Island. From talking with him, this means that he helps Danish citizens living or visiting NZ, entertains/hosts important visitors, and a variety of other things. It's not a full-time position like the ambassador, but it seems to keep him busy when he is not tied up at his real job. It also means that they have this awesome seal outside their house .
We arrived rather late on Friday night, but on Saturday we had a reasonably early start to check out the Craigieburn Range (which we could see from the Schousboe's porch!). Jorgen drove us out on some of the backroads, and on our way we passed through the Rakaia Gorge.
This is looking to the left (from the bridge)
And this one is looking straight-ahead / to the right
At this point we turned off of the paved road and spent the rest of our time on gravel/dirt roads. It was so nice of Jorgen to take us out, plus he knew exactly where is was going, well most of the time :) , so there wasn't anything for me and Erik to do except take in the sights and listen to some of Jorgen's stories. I really enjoyed hearing about when Erik's family used to live here or hearing about all the trouble that Carsten used to get into!
By the way, this area was about an hour outside of Christchurch.
The weather looked a little dicey as we were approaching the mountains, (notice the shift from blue sky to clouds in this picture) - but that didn't stop us!
Sure enough, not long after we pulled away from the Rakaia Gorge is started to rain. But neither rain nor fence held us back -
I am pretty sure he was thinking, "This rain is cold, and you two are just sitting there, warm and dry inside the car, laughing at me, and now I see you are taking my picture. Awesome." Ha!We drove a little further to check out Lake Coleridge. Even though the weather wasn't cooperating, you can still see that the lake is this amazing blue... if it had been a clear day, you would be able to see snow-capped mountains on the other side of the lake.
Then we took a break and had lunch at the Schousboe's cabin in Castle Hill. Our lunch was delicious - real apple juice, pate, pastrami & Danish cheese. Yum!
Within minutes of finishing lunch, the sky cleared. I was really excited about this and proceeded to take an obscene number of photos.
This one was just behind the cabin -
And here's another one I took from inside the car -
And then we arrived at our next destination, the Cave Stream Scenic Reserve - a 596m long limestone cave. This is Erik and Jorgen walking down towards the river basin. If you look at the bottom right you can see where the underwater river comes out of the cave (it's a little hard to see because it is shaded). We did not go into the cave - it sounded a little too cold for our taste.
This picture was taken looking in the other direction, but halfway down the slope to the creek -
And this one was taken at the park entrance (there's a tiny sign in there at the bottom) -
Then we headed over to Kura Tawhiti Conservation Area. All of these limestone boulders used to be on the bottom of the ocean, and now here they are - that's me trying to climb up. In case you were wondering, that is about as far as I got...
But these people were far more successful (see some people walking with a big red things strapped on the one guy's back? The red thing is a mat they put down on the ground wherever they are rock climbing.) Climbers are not permitted to use any equipment in order to preserve the area - not even cleats on their shoes.
And I took this picture because I would like to live on this farm - looks like a sweet gig to me!
No clouds near the top this time, so, guess what I did? I took yet another picture.
After the limestone boulders at Kura Tawhiti we headed back to Christchurch. This is the main road heading back to Christchurch (instead of the gravel ones we took on our way up) - it was amazing how quickly we were out of the mountains and back on flat land. (Christchurch is flat as a pancake - with the exception of a few spots which will be in my next post.)
Once back in town we had a lovely meal at home with Mona, then the four of us went to see Tennessee Williams' Glass Menagerie at the local theater. It was a lot of fun, and we were very, very impressed by the Southern accents. It felt like I was watching the play in Missouri!
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Hope all is well with everyone - I hope to post about the second half of our trip soon!
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