First South Island Experience

And so it was on December the sixteenth the days were accomplished, and Ralph was delivered from work unto a Holiday - our first trip to New Zealand's South Island. A bus to Wellington, the ferry to Picton, gateway city to the South Island; bus to Nelson - the sunniest city in New Zealand; rent a green car and drive west coast Hiway 6 (described as one of the most beautiful drives in the world by lonely planet), TranzAlpine railroad from Greymouth to Christchurch - fly back to base in Palmy.

And so it was.

It was also wet - too wet for pictures. In the sunniest town in New Zealand, rain 3 of 4 days. In Arthur's Pass, the alpine layover where we planned to spend 2 days to optimize weather - day one rain and winds to 110 km/hr; day 2 improved to rain and winds to 90 km/hr with Dept of Conservation (the tourism dept) saying it was unsafe to hike.

Still the place is awesome and obviously no one controls the weather--- anywhere---just explaining why there aren't more pics of the beautiful scenery which we got hints of through the mist.

One of the best days only started out in Nelson with rain briefly and bright sun as we got to AbelTasman National Park, one of the Kiwi's most visited National Parks. You must take ferries (aka "water taxis") to the bays and then kayak, hike, or just beach it in any of the areas. Things are, amusingly at times, different here - a Kiwi safety talk (loosely translated from memory) from the Sea Shuttle we took to Bark Bay:

"I am captain Mike. The law requires a safety talk so this is it. Life jackets are optional. On some boats the captain goes down with the ship. This is not one of those boats. If I put on a life jacket you might want to get one too. If you hear my splash, you might want to join me in the water. Any questions?"

The Abel Tasman was as strikingly colorful as described, hopefully I'll be able to post pictures of the color of the beaches, Split Apple Rock, and the trails at the edge of mountains and beach.

The TranzAlpine Train was not deterred by the local hurricane, here called the wet westerlies. And the sense of respect and awe for the countryside and those who settled/explored here has been deeply reinforced.

Merry Christmas (the Christmas tree was at the station in Wellington)

May peace, beauty and true warmth, warm your soul in every hemisphere and climate.

ralph and mary