Today is the worst day weather wise I have experienced since arriving. It's 9 degrees, raining and pretty miserable. Not far from Christchurch they are predicting snow at 300 metres, and Lewis Pass, which I drove through a couple of weeks back, is closed. So, today is a good day for "blog writing". I hadn't planned for last week to be a week of walking but that's how it turned out. The Port Hills is an area between Christchurch and Lytellton Harbour. They dom...

Well it was time to make another foray to the inland of the South Island. Todays destination was Lewis pass and then Hanmer Springs. Lewis Pass is the most direct route from Christchurch to the West Coast. The country side was the usual. Grazing land, wide valleys with wide, shallow, fast flowing rivers and always with a magnificent mountain backdrop. Probably sounds as if I'm bored by it, but far from it. Enroute I picked up a couple of elderly hitchhikers. ...

Time to see more of this interesting place. Not far from the city there is a gondola that takes you to the peak of the Port Hills. From here there is a 360 degree view over Lytellton Harbour, the Brighton beaches, the city and the Canterbury Plains in the distance. Fortunately it was quite a clear day and the view was amazing. Back down the gondola and through the road tunnel to Lytellton. It's the major port for Christchurch and the surrounding areas and is ba...

Did my first foray away from Christchurch today and headed to Arthurs Pass, about 150kms inland. The pass was a common trail used by the Maoris to travel between the east and west coasts and was then "discovered" by Arthur Dobson in the 1860's. At 900m, Arthurs Pass Village is the highest town in NZ. The drive there was very scenic. Across the Canterbury Plains and then into steep twisty mountain roads that over looked wide, flat river valleys. While the lower s...

The weather has been a bit ordinary, overcast days with showers/rain so I have spent a bit of time at home. But it did clear up on Thursday which made it a good day for a walk. Starting from Taylors Mistake (no one quite knows where this name came from) there is a great walk along the clifftop to Godley Head. Named after Sir John Godley, the Commander of the NZ forces during WW1, this headland area was the site of a large gun emplacement area during WW2. It's pur...