Dunedin to Christchurch

Within the last few days I made my way down to Dunedin, right into the middle of the south island to Lake Tekapo and back up to Christchurch. Mainly within the last 36hours and I haven't enjoyed myself more in the last weeks. All because I hired a car, being fed up with sitting on a coach and I should have done this from the beginning on, because I have seen so much more that way. Glad I am planning on bying one in Australia. I only got puzzled with the wrong-side-of-the-road-driving when I tried to get into the drivers seat from the right side of the car.

But first of all, I have to tell about Dunedin, where I spent the last weekend. Dunedin is a lovely little town located on the east coast with about a million churches and a real nice area around. The picture is taken at the worlds steepest street. (I wonder how they would proof this.) Anyways it has been lovely weather and I was making my way round the city for quiet a while so I had to check on it. Beside I met John, with whom I had a few nice talks, but as I was only there for a day... Not to mention all the Germans in the backpackers place. And again I have been in a wonderful museum, where I got closer to a polar bear, which I have tried a lot times before without success.

Monday morning my car was brought to the hostel and I could just through all my stuff into the trunk and head of. First place to go: Ontago Penisula to finally get to the beach for the first time. I wanted to see some sea lions but they couldn't make it in time. But I have been at Lanarchs Castle, the only one New Zealand has got and it's surrounded by wonderful gardens and the views are awesome. But this was just the beginning. I was on my way to see the most beautiful place I have been at so far.

Lake Tekapo, THE blue lake. The colour comes from a so called "rock flour", but I could not quiet point out what this means. Will check later. But the place is so peaceful and I was lucky enough to get the last bed in town for the night and so I could spent time at the waterfront and just try to glue that image to my mind forever. I will try to open an account with flickr.com, because you have to see all the pictures I have taken over the last few days. But this means quiet a lot of uploading, but I will let you know when it's done.

This morning at 7am I got into the car again and made my way back to Christchurch again, but I stopped a million times on the way and took two million pictures. I stopped at Mt. Cook, Akaroa, Lyttelton and just everywhere nice. I have to admit, the south island does have the more interesting landscapes and I might need to come back to see more of it. Tomorrow I am booked on a white water rafting trip and this will hopefully be a lot of fun. Thursday morning I will catch the train back to Wellington to spent another day in the only real city New Zealand has got.