Back to the Northern Hemisphere

The last few days in New Zealand were wonderful, especially because we saw Daniel once again. Our schedules overlapped for about 3 hours in Picton (northern end of the South Island). He and his traveling companion Lotem arrived on the ferry from Wellington in the early morning and we caught the same ferry to Wellington later that afternoon. We walked around the town, had breakfast in a funky restaurant and then took a short hike around the bay.

Daniel, Lotem and me in Picton

After saying goodbye (we'll see Daniel in Zurich for Pesach--yay!), we returned to the North Island on the ferry and then headed to Napier, a town in the North Island that was rebuilt in 1931 in the Art Deco style of architecture after a major earthquake leveled the town. We didn't have time for a walking tour, so we just strolled a bit.

Art Deco building in Napier

Our last night in NZ was spent in Auckland and we had time to walk around the wonderful Domain once again and see the War Memorial Museum.

We broke up the long flight back to Israel with a 24-hour stop in Bangkok. We hired a guide and driver who showed us the many beautiful Buddist temples and the outside of the Imperial Palace. The king (the longest serving monarch--63 years) is revered and we saw many huge pictures of him around the city, on buildings and bridges.

At one of many Buddist temples



Seated Budda

Imperial Palace (European and Thai architecture)

We arrived back in Haifa on Jan. 21 for a quick 10-day turnaround before flying to Zurich on Feb. 1 and beginning our European portion of the sabbatical. We had a busy time seeing Adam, friends, fixing things in the house and checking mail. Super whirlwind!

On to more adventures!

Haifa sunset from our balcony

Heaps of beautiful places...

Oamaru is a charming town famous for limestone buildings from the Victorian and Edwardian period. I loved poking around shops filled with antiques, bakeries, used book stores, etc.

Oamaru limestone buildings

We then took a drive and saw Maori cave drawings and amazing rock fields.

Maori cave drawings

Elephant rocks

A real highlight was seeing the incredible Benmore Dam. The runoff was so powerful and beautiful.

Benmore Dam--you have to see it to believe it

On to one of the most famous peaks in NZ: Mt. Cook. We were lucky that day and saw it nearly completely visible, although it was a cloudy day.

Mt. Cook--breathtaking

Onward past more beautiful lakes, Pukaki and Tepako. As you probably figured out by now, this part of the country is so chock-full of lakes and spectacular views. We don't get tired of this and I hope you don't either.

Lake Pukaki with Mt. Cook in the background

We just loved Lake Tekapo and couldn't believe 3 pictures of the same lake could look so different:

Lake Tekapo--1

Lake Tekapo--2

Lake Tekapo--3

Now for a city visit: Christchurch. CC is very charming and very English.

Christchurch Cathedral

Our City O-Tautahi

Interior of the Canterbury Provincial Council

Botanical gardens



Punting on the Avon River

We drove into the hills above CC (with bay views, of course) which were filled with joggers, bikers (even a unicyclist) and drivers like us. We stopped from time to time to climb the crags and look at the view beneath us. Wonderful.

Today, the 16th, we had a great time stopping at Kaikoura, a wonderful stretch of beach and rocks. It was so windy, they canceled all the whale-watching tours. Not good for business, but we always find something to do. We took a coastal walk atop the cliffs and then down to the water. It was spectacular! We could get up close to fur seals, but stayed about 10 meters away as suggested. They are known to get rather aggressive if people approach too closely.

Windy waves at Kaikoura

Fur seal

Yes, it was REALLY windy!

Amazing view from the coastal walk

Cool rocks!

This kelp was huge and reminded me of lasagna noodles

Here's a shot of a bunch of seal pups at Oahu:

Seal pups at Oahu

Dunedin and then some...

Dunedin is a very charming town, full of Scottish history. They were having unseasonably dreary and rainy weather, so we planned indoor activities for a change.

We hopped aboard the Taieri Gorge Train, some cars from the 1920's, which took us on a 2-hour ride through incredible scenery: high cliffs, bridges, rivers and craggy rock faces of shist rock.

The train and Dunedin Tran Station

Interior of the station


View from the train

On our return we visited the Cadbury Chocolate Factory and had a tour (and got free samples--yum-yum!)

On to the Otago Settlers' Museum which had wonderful exhibits about the stoic pioneers from England and Scotland. NZ in the 1870's was not for the faint of heart.

We had a really nice rainy walk through the campus of Otago University, built in the 1870's, full of Victorian buildings. Just wonderful.

They don't build universities like this anymore

We even met a woman from the administrative staff who showed us around the Chancellor's reception room and senate meeting room.




Speaking of architecture, the next day we visited the only "castle" in NZ, Larnach Castle. In truth, this is a castle-like mansion, again built in the 1870's by an Australian banker who loved the hilltop location. And he was right. The view is incredible and looks over the entire Otago Peninsula out to the Tasman Sea. The house was in great dis-repair over many years and in 1967, it was bought by a family who painstakingly had it restored to its former glory. The wife is an avid gardener, too, so the gardens all around the house are fabulous. The Barker family have an apartment there and are still involved daily with the restoration. It reminded me a lot of Filoli mansion, near San Mateo.

Larnach Castle


View from the tower


Garden shot

The castle even comes with its own bagpiper!

Our next stop was at the Royal Albatross Colony on the very end of Otago Peninsula. (At first I thought this place had a connection to the Queen, but found out it's named "royal" because it's the largest species of albatross. About 9.5 kilos and a wing-span of 3.5 meters.) We were able to view them from an enclosed viewing platform and these birds are BIG. And they can glide/fly for great distances. One was measured by GPS that went 1800 kilometers in one day without every touching ground. Talk about long-haul flights! They can live up to 60 years.

Royal albatross in flight


Albatross in flight and shag (type of bird) mud nests

Next stop on our way to Oamaru for the night was to see the Moeraki Rocks. These are very round cracked boulders that somehow were eroded away from the coastline walls and ended up on the beach. They look like turtle backs. Very cool.

Moeraki Rocks

Catlins

Our next day was also a beautiful driving and stopping day.

Jack's Bay and Blowhole:


Purakaunui Falls:

Matai Falls:

Nugget Point:

Our last stop of the day was in Dunedin and we walked up Baldwin St. which is in the Guiness Book of Records as the steepest street in the world at 35 degrees. We actually saw cars try to drive up and had to turn around. Dunedin.

The South Scenic Route

After leaving Te Anau, we spent a wonderful day driving in the Catlins along the South Scenic Route, stopping briefly at various places. Beautiful views, farmland and gigantic mountains behind us.

Here's some of the highlights of what we saw:

A shot of Clifden Suspension Bridge built in 1899:



We then stopped and walked into a forest to see the 1000 year old Totara tree:


The surfing bay was pretty at Colac Bay, but the highlight for us was this cool 3-D surfer-sign:


Interesting coastline at Riverton Rocks:


We had a real thrill once arriving at Invercargill. We read somewhere that this was the hometown of Burt Munro who was a motorcycle fanatic, especially with his 1921 Indian cycle which he modified for speed over the years and broke records at Bonneville Salt Flats in the 60's and 70's. (Anthony Hopkins starred as Burt in the 2005 movie "The World's Fastest Indian"). Not only did we see an exhibit about his life at the Heritage Museum, we went to Hays Hardware Store in town where the owner was a motorcycle collector and bought Burt's beloved Indian in the late 1970's shortly before Burt died of natural causes. So there it was, the original Indian. Wow. Miles was in cycle-heaven.

Burt Munro with his precious Indian

Burt Munro fan club

Slope Point, the most southern spot in NZ. It really felt like the end of the earth.