Oystein
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2009
- Messages
- 18,941
We always wanted to do that train tripDo you think they will rebuild it, too early I know, but that road/rail link down to Christchurch seemed a very important one.
I was in NZ with my mum (then 80 - the journey was our gift to her birthday earlier that year) in 2008, and we had gone to the South Island essentially without a plan. My twin sister and her family lived south of Auckland at the time, so we had spent most of our time on the North Island. Between arriving at Picton and flying back from Christchurch, we had only like 5 days, and the only bit of a plan was to drive to Nelson and see what we can do there with the Abel Tasman.
But when we woke up in Picton after arriving the night before, we saw, and were told, that it was super pretty there, so we stayed another night, and another... did a day of wine tasting near Blenheim, and met a Swiss couple who lived in Kaikoura and had a store for artsy jewelry (doesn't everybody in Kaikoura), and they asked us to visit them there. O and anyway, time was getting short, so that's how we ended up going south on SH1 - and man, what a beautiful ride.
No one and nothing had prepared me for Kaikoura. I only knew that a Swiss couple sold stuff there, and that was all. I had neglected to read a travel guide - and ended up being blown away by the combination of coast shape and dolphins and snow-covered mountains and deep blue sea and cool people and seals ... and when that wandering albatross crossed my camera lense at the exact moment the sperm whale unfolded his mighty tail, that was a most religious experience!
Difficult to grasp that the church spire in Christchurch is gone, and that highway buckled.
Last edited:
