Hello and welcom to my blog about our trip to New Zealand! Bill and I set off from Redmond on Feb. 16th to LA and ended up seated next to the daughter of the pharmacist that use to own the Newport Pharmacy. Talk about small world. She was a delightful person to visit with. Then after spending the majority of the day in the international terminal in LA we finally boarded the plane to Auckland at 9:45PM. It was a bit of a grueling flight as neither one of us really got comfortable enough to sleep much during the 13 hr flight. Landing in Auckland was rainy and dreary, reminded me of a rainy day in Portland. But, the flight to Christchurch was short and had a nice visit with a lady from Christchurch. It was warm and sunny and after a stroll downtown, we connected with our friend Annie. We ate great Thai food, she told us about her experience in moving to Christchurch with her family, what she was working on and then she gave us a tour of the devastation that still exists in Christchurch 5 years after the earthquakes. Very amazing and sobering. Lots of buildings that are abandoned, others held up with container cars and some overrun with weeds among the rubble. Google Christchurch Cathedral and I am sure you will see some unreal pictures.
The next day we went to the Botanic Garden in Christchurch which was beautiful with huge trees, flowering roses and guess what? Dahlias! The Kiwis love flowers. After allowing Garmin to drive us around in circles in downtown Christchurch (must have been due to streets that were blocked off due to construction) we finally made it out and headed for Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. Supposedly a 1hr and 10 min drive however if you are not use to driving on the left on narrow, windy roads it takes a bit longer!! I have now figured out the difference between the windshield wiper lever and the turn signal lever. I am sure the Kiwis can pick out a tourist as there windshield wipers are often going off on beautiful sunny days. Enough for now, I will attach a few pictures!!
