Rubin Trek: 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.