The Dacha

Thursday, May 12, 2011

WC 2011 The Flight to the Glacier

Just a short plane ride to the Tasman Glacier....

Merrill got the right hand seat up.

Cosy to say the least.

Because my friends Dane and Svein will ask, I took a photo to remember what kind of plane we were in...

As you can see, the day could not have been more perfect.

Our half of the group had two planes...here's the other one.

Here's comes the second plane!

WC 2011 Mount Cook

Nothing could have prepared me for the experience we had on Mount Cook.

We arrived after a LONG day of bus riding...checked into the hotel and immediately drove to the airport for flightseeing on the Tasman Glacier.

The photos, I hope, say it all.

Mt. Cook- Sir Edmund Hillary's old stomping ground- just peaking over the edge.

Suzanne waiting to get on the plane.

WC2011 Into the Southern Alps

Well, we are up to the midday of Inland Day 1. Heading out of Christchurch, we set our sights on the distant foothills of the Southern Alps.

We passed a hatchery...can you guess what kind?

We stopped for lunch at a country home where a delicious dinner of lamb, chicken and side dishes had been prepared, complete with Pavlova for dessert!

I remembered these as Cabbage Palms that I had seen with my new Maori friends on the voluntourism excursion.

Mama and Suzanne, both avid gardeners, really enjoyed looking around.

The garden reminded me of my friend Ivy in England...she loves to post photos of her little garden patch.

Happily fed, we headed off toward Burkes Pass. As an inland flatlander, I love ANY scenery that involves water or mountains!
(probably why I love Norway...I get both at once!!)

We were getting into "Lord of the Rings" country.

The higher you go toward the pass, the drier and browner the scenery becomes.

There is a series of lakes and dams throughout the McKenzie Basin which provides power for the south island. We stopped briefly on the shores of Lake Tekapo at the Church of the Good Shepherd.