New Zealand 1
Mar. 18th, 2017 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
New Zealand: a wondrous experience so far.
We arrived - after 24 hours of flight, no less - in Christchurch. Which is still heavily earthquake afflicted. Just look at the Cathedral:

Mind you, we only remained there for one afternoon and the night. Enough for a stroll (and some gruesome Heavenly Creatures reflections), but no more. The next morning, we took off towards the interior, to be precise, to Lake Tekapo, where we enjoyed the Grand Traverse, which is a flight over a magnificent series of mountains and glaciers. It starts thusly:

The Godley River and the Godley Glaciers

The lighting of the beacons sequence from The Return of the King used these mountains, and no wonder. I mean:




From Mount Cook's side (more Mount Cook to come) heading back to lake territory:

The Mackenzie District:

Going down again:

Having done this, we did part of it again, only by car, for our destination for the night was Aoraki, aka Mount Cook. This is the view that greets you as you approach:


What you do once there is, of course, hiking, to admire glaciers close up. Well, what's left of them, as in the case of the Tasman glacier:

While the Glacier lake next to Mount Sefton looks prettier but is still a testimony to climate change:

And of course the ever present Aoraki (the Maori name for the mountain). This is what I call my Toblerone shot:

The next morning, we said goodbye to Mount Cook and the nearby Mount Sefton as the sun rose and the moon hadn't set yet:


Mount Sefton:

Aoraki:

Coming up next: Queenstown, Isengard and Lothlorien!
We arrived - after 24 hours of flight, no less - in Christchurch. Which is still heavily earthquake afflicted. Just look at the Cathedral:

Mind you, we only remained there for one afternoon and the night. Enough for a stroll (and some gruesome Heavenly Creatures reflections), but no more. The next morning, we took off towards the interior, to be precise, to Lake Tekapo, where we enjoyed the Grand Traverse, which is a flight over a magnificent series of mountains and glaciers. It starts thusly:

The Godley River and the Godley Glaciers

The lighting of the beacons sequence from The Return of the King used these mountains, and no wonder. I mean:




From Mount Cook's side (more Mount Cook to come) heading back to lake territory:

The Mackenzie District:

Going down again:

Having done this, we did part of it again, only by car, for our destination for the night was Aoraki, aka Mount Cook. This is the view that greets you as you approach:


What you do once there is, of course, hiking, to admire glaciers close up. Well, what's left of them, as in the case of the Tasman glacier:

While the Glacier lake next to Mount Sefton looks prettier but is still a testimony to climate change:

And of course the ever present Aoraki (the Maori name for the mountain). This is what I call my Toblerone shot:

The next morning, we said goodbye to Mount Cook and the nearby Mount Sefton as the sun rose and the moon hadn't set yet:


Mount Sefton:

Aoraki:

Coming up next: Queenstown, Isengard and Lothlorien!