Wellington to Queenstown

Flooding in Queenstown




Landing on Fox Glacier


















Tranz-Alpine Railway

Sailing on the lake from Queenstown





This is the end of our second full week in New Zealand, during which we have journeyed from Wellington, at the south-east tip of the North Island, to near the south-west tip of the South Island and have had many experiences. We'll tell you about four of them now and add a few photos.(We are finding it rather difficult to download photos, so you will have to forgive us for not adding more.)



Last Sunday was Anzac memorial day for New Zealand's ( and Australia's) soldiers throughout the generations.This particular Anzac day began with tragedy, when an army helicopter en route to the fly-past at the main Wellington ceremony crashed at dawn due to poor visibility, killing 3 young airmen. The national media involvement with the tragedy over the following days mirrored similar situations in Israel and reminded us that this, too, is a country with a small, but nationalistic, population. That afternoon we visited the Parliament buildings and were fascinated to hear that, although the Westminster system strongly influences day to day workings, there is a mix of proportional representation and constituency-elected members.



Two days later, on the scenic alpine railway between Christchurch in the east and Greymouth in the west, we met a Kiwi couple (the name New Zealanders tend to call themselves- probably to avoid any racial bias of the international name as opposed to the Maori one, Aotearoa) who explained the political system to us in more detail. They added that Maoris can choose to vote directly for Maori candidates instead of for a local member of Parliament as today they are scattered throughout the population centres. Our conversation was punctated by frequent trips to the open part of the carriage to try to capture the beauty of the mountain range, despite the heavy cloud and gusts of rain which obscured many of the famous peaks.



Though this weather has dogged us all week, we have woken twice to find towering peaks glittering outside different motel windows, where there had been cloudy sky the night before. So when there was a break in the rain over the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, we quickly decided to take a thrilling helicopter trip, zooming up and down each glacier and actually landing on crunchy,pristine snow at the Fox Glacier.



Driving south is like crossing an enormous botanical garden, with overhanging plants, waterfalls and high snow-capped mountains. Many of the roads are very winding and the numerous river bridges are often open for one direction of traffic at a time. Consequently one has to be very careful and patient and not drive for longer than 2-3 hours without a good break. This is particularly difficult in blinding rain when some of the roads are barely passable. Because petrol stations are to be found mainly in towns, it is important to fill up when you see one. Towns may be as much as 100kms apart!



Queenstown has proved much quieter than we expected, an excellent place to spend a few days now that the torrential rain has passed and especially as we found a comfortable apartment at low-season rates. The rivers are too full for jet-boating (Maurice's plan) so we had to make do with the more sedate pleasure of a steamboat trip (to Marilyn's relief) down the long lake, which is causing flooding in the town itself.The surrounding mountains change from minute to minute . Watching them is a pastime of its own. At sunset tonight they looked like a cardboard backcloth for a stage-set, lit from behind.Nearer hills are clothed in glorious autumnal colours, which are beyond verbal description.



We have met people from all over the world, including a Samoan taxi-driver, but no Israelis.

Enjoy Lag B'Omer

Maurice and Marilyn

Video near Franz Josef Glacier