Heading South to the South Island

 3/09/2024

It was time to leave Rotorua and fly to Christchurch for our South Island touring.  But first, after breakfast, we headed to a Redwood Tree walk.  Years ago while trying to figure out what wood would be good to grow and harvest in New Zealand, redwoods were brought over and established in the area. True to the New Zealand adventuring spirit, about 10 years ago, they built a tree walk throughout the redwoods.  

This picture was taken looking up from the walkway through the trees. A little dizzying. 

Most of the bridges between the trees looked like this.  We were told that no nails were used in the building of this walk. 

 

Our tour guide is photo bombing me!                         

They were pretty specific in letting us know that only 8 on a bridge at a time and no more than 20 on the platforms.

Meghan, Debbie, Jerry, Jenny and Brad made sure there were only 5.

Throughout the trees, there was different lighting so you could walk at night.  This metal ball was a part of those.

More lights. 

At one point there was a high road and a low road.   Here we were on the high road looking down. 

Next, we went to the smallest airport that I have ever been to - Rotorua airport - with only 4 arrivals and 4 departures daily, it would be a pretty laid back airport to work at.  I have never flown on a propeller plane before, but it was just as large inside as some of the jets out of Grand Rapids and was a surprisingly smooth ride.  

This plane is called an ATR72    And is very similar to the F27 that we use to load at FedEx. 

What a beautiful view for take off from Rotorua.

The volcanic cone on the right hand side of the picture was the inspiration for Mt Doom - or so I like to think.   This was taken from the plane and is part of a large national park called Tongariro in the middle of the north island.                       

After arriving in Christchurch, we drove south across the Canterbury Plains, while Colin explained different things about New Zealand.  NZ makes 24 billion a year from dairy farming, it is the biggest export business of New Zealand (mostly powdered).  In Canterbury, just south of Christchurch there are 3 cows to every hectare (as a comparison the EU has a rule of 1 cow per hectare).  One hectare is 2.471 acres. 

Also, because the southern alps run down the center of the South Island of NZ, there is a rain forest on west side of South Island and is dry on the east side. The southern alps are on top of 2 tectonic plates and continue to grow with the highest peak on the range is 12,316.  We also passed many merino sheep farms (originally sent from Spain) raised to make the merino wool product.  We finished our day at the Victorian town of Oamaru which was founded in 1861.  

After hotel bar and dinner together, we went out to see the world’s smallest penguins - called the little blue penguin.  While the colony has over 700 penguins, it was molting season, (when they get new feathers causing them to not be able to swim) so they were mostly either in their nests or out to sea getting fat so that they can just sit in the nest for a few weeks.  We did see about 15 of them, they were super cute.  We were not allowed to take pictures, but the ones I am posting are from their information center.  Also, this morning our bus driver saw one swimming out to sea and took this photo for us.   Isn’t it adorable!  (Our driver obviously is talented and has his own photography name) 

We call these birds Comorants, but New Zealanders call them Shags.  They were all packed on a dock on the way into the penguin observation area. 

The little blue penguin is the one on the far right in this picture,  The penguin that I am most familiar with is the emperor penguin.  It is the one 2nd from the left.   

This picture was taken from their exhibit so you can see what they look like on the nest.  

There were 100s of boxes like the one in this picture all around the protected area.  This enables the penguins to have a home and for breeding.  Even if they don’t have chicks or eggs that they have to take care of, they still come back to the same nest. 

There were a bunch of fur seals on the rocks, and of course as a tourist, I had to take pictures of them! 

I hope you enjoyed the day- Mary