Half Around The World In 80 Days

By Saturday the roads from Queenstown had finally reopened, which is quite a relief as I am to fly out of NZ on Sunday afternoon. I make the journey to Christchurch on a scenic bus which takes in Mount Cook, the highest peak in Australasia. The weather again conspires to hide all the mountain peaks in dense cloud, but at least the rain has stopped. The bus driver delivers an endless string of interesting facts about the places we travel through. There have been huge state projects undertaken her to harness nature for hydro-electric power and irrigation. In one case lake levels have been risen by 40 metres in order to make a river flow in the opposite direction to the one that nature intended.

Throughout this Central Otago region the roads are fringed with colourful pink and purple lupins; the driver explains that back in the 40s and 50s a local woman decided that the countryside needed more colour and used to sprinkle lupin seeds out of the car window when she went on Sunday drives with her husband. This southern Johnny Appleseed was amazingly effective and apparently the lupins do not have any negative effect on the environment. This is rare since most plants and animals introduced by Europeans have wreaked havoc here. The British brought rabbits for food and they bred like rabbits in a population explosion. Then someone decided to bring possums from Australia to prey on the rabbits but with no predators, the possum population has now reached 60 million possums in New Zealand. These wreak havoc on native plants and animals and the furry critters are regarded as a menace by every Kiwi.

A new Zealand peculiarity , the one-way bridge, responsible for numerous road deaths.

Rampant lupins at Lake Tekapo

Christchurch is very full this evening and after much searching I find salubrious accommodation in Foley Towers which does the family name proud. A walk in the Saturday night city shows that the main social activity for young men is cruising up and down the main street in old cars tuned for maximum noise while whistling at young girls and taunting the police.

I finally depart this lovely country on Sunday November 21st after generally having a good time. The weather was a bit of a downer though, and if you plan to go there you would be best advised to do so in January or February.

The finest accommodation in all of Christchurch