The Visit part 2

Next morning we were all feeling rested as we had breakfast at the hotel:

It was overcast in Christchurch, but that didn't dampen our spirits. We spent a couple of hours at the Antarctic Centre near the hotel. (Fantastic! Everyone should see it!)

On the drive back to Queenstown, the scenery was typical South Island beautiful. We made frequent stops for Pat (see his blog: PeeNewZealand for more photos and his unique perspective on the visit), so they got to see a bit of most of the towns along the way--at least the toilets anyway. We arrived just after dark in Queenstown and went straight to our hotel. Their office closes at 5:00, but we had picked up our room key on the way out of town the day before. We still managed to get a pretty swank meal in town and had a lovely view of the town after dark:

The next day was a whirlwind of activity: going up the skyline gondola to view lake Wakatipo,

(Ok, so here's a better picture of the lake)

riding the luge,

touring a vineyard,

jetboating,

and driving to Te Anau to visit the glow-worm caves. Our poor travelers weren't getting much rest--but then, they didn't come here to rest.

The following day we had booked a day trip on Doubtful sound. The rain that had started to fall on Te Anau stayed mostly on the west side of the mountains. We got a bit of rain on the boat ride across Lake Manipouri to the bus that would take us over the pass and down to Doubtful Sound:

It made the islands and shore appear and disappear in a misty fog.

The view at the top of the pass overlooking the sound was a bit foggy, but still pretty.


Fiordland is a temperate rain forest. I think visitors were surprised at just how chilly it was. Jackets, especially waterproof ones, were a must!

At Doubtful Sound we borded another boat:

The shore and islands come straight down into the water with no beach.

On the way back over the pass, the fog had cleared and we had a pretty view of Doubtful Sound.

Next day we drove back to Invercargill. New Zealand hedges are mostly trimmed--English style.

The Visit

On Friday, August 4, 2006 we drove to Queenstown to pick up our daughters Libby and Molly and their husbands, Pat and Jean-Francois, who were visiting New Zealand for the first time. We left Invercargill about 7 a.m. so we could meet their scheduled 9:30 arrival. Karen chided me, saying the flight would probably be delayed, but I wanted to be there when they got off the plane. We were treated to some lovely views as the sun came up:

We arrived with five minutes to spare and rushed into the terminal hoping they hadn't arrived early. When their flight arrived, they were not on it. We wandered around the airport for awhile, until I finally approached the Quantas check-in counter to see if they could tell me where our children were. We learned that they were not on the passenger list, but would probably be on the next flight, due to arrive in a couple of hours. We took the opportunity to buzz into town to check out the location of our hotel and re-acquaint ourselves with where things were. This is the wharf in Queenstown:

When the next flight also arrived without our family, we were not sure what to do. We were milling around outside the airport about 11:30 when Molly called to say they'd just arrived in Auckland. They had been diverted to Nadi because of fog at the Auckland airport.

There were no more direct flights from Auckland to Queenstown that day, so they were faced with either spending the night in Auckland or getting a flight to Christchurch, where they would have to spend the night. They had been traveling for somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 hours and were desperate to finish their flights. She asked me if we could just drive over and pick them up in Christchurch... (It doesn't look that far on a map.)

I've driven much of that road a few times with our scout group, so I knew what it involved. I offered alternatives, but could hear the desperation in her voice... One bonus was that Karen got to see Mt Cook for the first time: (Its the big one in the middle)

On the trip, we decided there was no way we were driving back that night. Karen called the Christchurch airport and left a message for the kids to call us when they arrived. (Mobile phones are wonderful things.) We were driving through pretty remote areas, but had stopped for gas and luckily had a signal when they called. We told them to find a hotel and call us so we could meet them. We arrived in Christchurch about 7:30 that night. Even in the dark, I could see the clouds begin to roll in.