As with our other guests, jet lag started to take hold around dinner time that first night. I told Butch he'd be in bed by 7pm, but he didn't believe me at first... until about 5:30 rolled around, and he wondered if he would even make it to 7! Once he was fast asleep in the other room, Elliot and I made our gourmet meal of Skyline Chili Sandwiches. Thank you Butch for bringing the chili! I knew he would most likely sleep through the night, but I would have never guessed that he would also sleep right through so much excitement. At 10:36 a powerful earthquake hit the North Island. It was a magnitude 7 earthquake, the largest in the region in seven years. Luckily for everyone, it was far below the surface, so no major damage was done. You wouldn't have guessed it from the effect it had. It sounded like really heavy thunder and the floors felt like jello! Elliot and I even reverted to what you learn in Kindergarten and ran to the nearest doorway to wait it out. Once we were sure it had passed, we went to the bedroom and listened to see if it woke Butch. He was still sound asleep! When we finally told him what happened, he was bummed to have missed all the excitement! What a way to start the trip.
The earthquake related trip didn't end there, with a visit to post earthquake Christchurch on the trip schedule. After spending a few days in Wellington, we were off on our trip of the South Island. We took the Interislander Ferry from Wellington to Picton. As it always is, the Ferry was running late so we had to rush from the Ferry to the train station. Then we boarded the first of our train trips on the Coastal Pacific Train, which took us from Picton to Christchurch. What an amazing way to see the sights. With huge picture windows across all the train cars, comfy seats, and an onboard open air viewing deck, it was truly awesome. There are plenty of pictures to show! That train took about 5 or 6 hours. Here is a snippet from the website so you can see the path we took
We spent our time in Christchurch exploring the beauty and the devastation. For those of you that don't know, here is a quick look at what has happened in Christchurch in the past couple years (thank you Wikipedia)
The February 2011 Christchurch earthquake was a powerful natural event that severely damaged New Zealand's second-largest city, killing 185 people in one of the nation's deadliest peacetime disasters.
The magnitude 6.3 (ML) earthquake[1] struck the Canterbury region in New Zealand's South Island. The earthquake was centred 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) west of the town of Lyttelton, and 10 kilometres (6 mi) south-east of the centre of Christchurch, New Zealand's second-most populous city.[1] It followed nearly six months after the magnitude 7.1 Canterbury earthquake of 4 September 2010, which caused significant damage to Christchurch and the central Canterbury region, but no direct fatalities.
The earthquake caused widespread damage across Christchurch, especially in the central city and eastern suburbs, with damage exacerbated by buildings and infrastructure already being weakened by the 4 September 2010 earthquake and its aftershocks. Significant liquefaction affected the eastern suburbs, producing around 400,000 tonnes of silt. The earthquake was reported to be felt across the South Island and the lower and central North Island.
In total, 185 people were killed in the earthquake, making it the second-deadliest natural disaster recorded in New Zealand (after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake), and fourth-deadliest disaster of any kind recorded in New Zealand, with nationals from more than 20 countries among the victims.Over half of the deaths occurred in the six-storey Canterbury Television (CTV) Building, which collapsed and caught fire in the quake. The government declared a state of national emergency, which stayed in force until 30 April 2011.
The total cost to insurers of rebuilding has been estimated at NZ$20–30 billion, making it by far New Zealand's costliest natural disaster, and the third-costliest earthquake (nominally) worldwide.
So, needless to say, the downtown area, or lack there of, was practically abandoned, with much of the city fenced off to keep people from entering the most dangerous or "red zone" areas. You'll have to see the pictures to understand what we saw. These earthquakes happened after Elliot and I had decided that when we moved to New Zealand we would settle in Christchurch. Needless to say, our plans quickly changed and that is how we ended up in Wellington. It was sad to see the city we had hoped to live in being in such shambles, but you could still tell the beauty and character it had before the earthquakes.
After our time in Christchurch we boarded another train, taking us from Christchurch to Greymouth. The TranzAlpine train trip took us through the scenic Southern Alps and across some amazing landscape. This one was definitely my favorite of the two trains. It got quite cold as we neared the top of the mountain, and the few stations we stopped at along the way had snow covered grounds. The open air car was obviously quite cold, but if you bundled up enough, it was such a cool experience. Wait until you see the pictures and decide for yourself. Here is where that trip took us (also from their website)
We didn't have much time in Greymouth with just one night, so we went to the highly recommended pancake rocks and blowholes. " The Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts though a number of vertical blowholes during high tides. Together with the 'pancake'-layering of the limestone (created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments)" It was worth the 30 minute drive to see such a sight. We were lucky enough to get there less than an hour after high tide, so the blowholes were active and the tides were crashing around the rocks.
We took the TranzAlpine back to Christchurch the next day, stayed one more night in Christchurch, and then flew back to Wellington. It was a beautiful and sight filled trip. We still had a few days before Butch left, so we spent a rainy day at Te Papa Museum and some quality time with good food and good company. We saw Butch off knowing we would see him when we got home a month later!
Okay, here is the link to all the pictures I talked about. Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157630799727558/
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