October 31, 2007

Well, here we are back in Samoa after a very enjoyable 2 weeks touring the South Island of New Zealand. After the cool (cold) and rain of our first week, Samoa seems very hot. August was a very cool month by Samoan standards and we got very spoiled. It has turned warmer and warmer but we really didn't notice it until we returned from New Zealand or the land of the long white cloud. It is now very hot here.

We took the time to tour for 2 weeks with the Smarts who were on the way home from their mission here in Samoa. We flew to Auckland and then directly on to ChristChurch (hereafter called Ch.Ch.) on the South Island. We left here Tuesday night but arrived in New Zealand on Thursday morning as we lost a day at the International Date Line.

After finalizing all of the arrangements for the hire of a camper van, we settled down in a Holiday Park in Ch.Ch. We went downtown and visited the scenic sights and parks in the rain. Sister Smart was already regretting the decision to be in NZ because of the rain, etc. Ch.Ch. was beautiful! Old buildings in excellent repair, parks, and just a good feel.

The next morning we had to take care a of some emergent repairs on the camper van and then headed south to Oamaru. It is a seaside town with an abundance of old buildings, parks and penguins. We visited their habitat but they don't return home until dusk so we passed up the opportunity to pay $20 each to sit in the cold and wait for the show. We visited with our friend Heather Vance from Balzac, AB, who is serving her mission in the NZ South Mission. She is stationed in Oamaru and showed us around. We took her out to dinner and then parked our van in front of her house for the night. In the morning Kathy enjoyed a nice long walk on the beach with Heather where she spent her time with her head down discovering beautiful paua shells. They treated us to breakfast and then we were on our way to Dunedin. It was still raining and chilly!

On the way, we stopped and spent time at the Moeraki boulders. They are large (up to 2 meters) round rocks formed in the soil along the beach and as they weather, and water erodes the beach, they are released and roll onto the beach where they appear as big balls. Dunedin is a nice city. Since it was Sunday, we anticipated Sacrament Meeting. After contacting the church, we found that they were meeting to listen to the conference talks from the week before that they did not have the opportunity to participate in. As we had already attended all sessions of conference we decided to travel on.

At this point we headed into the interior to the resort town of Te Anau. It is on a beautiful lake which is the second largest in NZ. We by-passed the southern most city of Invercargill in the essence of time. The trip took about five hours and moved from the coastal region on the east to the mountains near the west coast. We stayed there 2 nights to facilitate a trip to Milford Sound on Monday morning. Milford Sound is actually a fjord on the west coast but is only accessible by sea or a small road from Te Anau. We took a guided tour from our Holiday Park and after a 1 1/2 hr. very informative drive, we arrived at Milford Sound. At that point we boarded a boat which took us on an guided tour through the sound or fjord into the open sea and back. It rained! I'm sure the scenery could have been much more impressive with sunshine but there is a silver lining to the many clouds that day. With all the rain, there were many more waterfalls and the low lying clouds added a mystical sense to the trip. But, it was cold! On the way back, we were taken on a bit of a tour with a short walk to another waterfall. Our site in the Holiday Park at Te Anau was delightful with a great view of the lake from our back windows.

During Monday night, after our trip to Milford, Kathy and I were rudely awoken at O dark thirty, as Debra Kinder would say, to a violent shaking of our camper van. The Smarts slept right through it. In the morning we discovered that there had been an 6.9 earthquake 60 km west of Milford and 24 km down. Rocks slides had covered parts of the road stopping all traffic. One lane was cleared to allow cars out of the area and then shut down for a few days. Had we been one day later we would not have seen Milford Sound.

Tuesday we travelled through Queenstown and on to Wanaka, two more resort towns on lakes in the mountains. Ho hum! No, they were very nice. Still raining.

The whole west coast is made up of mountains that they call the Southern Alps. They are about as high as the rockies at home but start at sea level not a few thousand feet - very beautiful and impressive. On Wednesday we drove through them to the west coast and travelled north to the small community of Franz Joseph in Glacier Country. More rain!

The west coast is extremely inhospitable and beautiful. The mountains come right down to the Tasman Sea. One of the brochures we read called it the "Tempestuous Tasmanian Sea". How accurate! Some of the wildest waves I have ever seen pound relentlessly on the shore and the rocks. 

As we headed north on Thursday, we viewed the wild shoreline. At Ship Creek we stopped for a stretch and found a stunning windblown beach where the waves are so vicious they whipped up huge piles of foam that blew across the beach. It had stopped raining!

Further on we stopped at Punakaiki or sometimes called Pancake Rocks. Only a picture could describe what we saw there and then very poorly. The trails were developed exceptionally well to display some of the most beautiful rock formations with rock bridges over arches and blow holes. I am always fascinated by the power of the seas. We continued north until we came to the town of Westport. We found a suitable Holiday Park just a few minutes out of town at Carter's Beach and near a Seal Colony.

The next morning (Friday) we continued on to the Seal Colony and after observing for a few minutes we headed inland and north to the port town of Nelson. The company we rented our van from was near Nelson and so we took care of some business and then moved on to a Park for the night near the beach.

Saturday we passed back over to the north-east coast to Blenheim and then back to Picton where the ferries travel to Wellington on the North Island. We spent the night there and Sunday morning we parked the van at a long term parking facility near the train station and ferry terminal and we parted ways with the Smarts. They took a ferry to the North Island to continue their tour for a few more days but we took a train back to Ch.Ch. It was a 5 hour train ride down the east coast and through the Canterbury plains. We checked into a hotel in Ch.Ch. for 2 nights in preparation for our flights back to Auckland and Samoa. Monday was a beautiful spring day in Ch.Ch. and a total contrast to our first day there just a week and a half before. We walked all over and explored the parks and downtown shopping. It was a nice wrap-up of the journey.

The South Island is beautiful. We enjoyed the trip even in the rain. Ch.Ch. really impressed us a clean, historic and pleasant city. It is well preserved and very British but we were surprised by and enjoyed the ethnic diversity with people from all over the orient, India and Europe.

Early Tuesday morning (4:15 AM) we arose to head to the airport for our flight to Auckland at 7:00 AM. We had a layover of over 20 hours in Auckland so we secured a small hotel room nearby and rested. In the evening we were able to connect with Bonnie (Nielson) Naera and her husband Patrick. We spent a couple of enjoyable hours with them and their children and then returned to our hotel for another early rise on Wednesday (3:15 AM) to catch our flight to Samoa. We arrived at 9:45 AM Tuesday morning.

After taking care a of a little business and relaxing at home for a few minutes, we rushed off to the temple where we had previously committed to perform as ordinance workers for a special invitation only session of the temple for Elder Russell M. Nelson and his wife and President Condie of the Seventy and Area President of the Pacific Islands. A good end to our 2 weeks.