Christchurch to Lake Hawea

As we mentioned before, we had a visitor for the first half of November; Sean's friend Brett flew out from Tucson for a two-week mini-tour of the South Island. We met him in Christchurch on the 3rd and after a day of sights in the city, we headed west into mountain country.

One of Christchurch's many trolleys, stopped for a moment on a corner of Cathedral Square in the historic downtown.

Johnson's General Store, one of our favorite finds in Christchurch, run by the older gentleman you see in the background who has had the store there for over 50 years. It doesn't seem like much has changed in that time, and it is packed with quirky imports primarily from Britain, but including treats like boxes of Turkish delight and local jam.

Though slightly hidden by clouds,...this was our first real sighting of Mt. Cook, New Zealand's highest peak, at the edge of Lake Pukaki.


An unbelievably picturesque valley we stopped to admire on our way to a campsite in Temple Valley

We stayed two nights in Temple Valley, where we did a day hike through a river valley to a snowy mountain-ringed valley (known as a cirque). The hike began and ended with a river crossing, with our pants rolled up and our boots in hand. Luckily, the day was quite warm so the snow melt water was more refreshing than painful.

We were thrilled to find that it was much drier in the central part of the country (in the rain shadow of the Southern Alps) and we enjoyed several days of perfect Arizona-worthy dry weather.

Look, it's not so different after all! We all felt at home in Lindis Pass

We reveled in the warm, dry weather camping at Lake Hawea, north of Wanaka. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the lake was that its beach was covered in smooth, flat, round stones perfect for skipping. None of us had ever had much luck with skipping before, but here the rocks seemed to have a mind of their own and we were pros in no time.