Saturday, April 23rd:
Adam and I woke up at 6:10 a.m. to catch a bus to the airport, since our flight left at 9 a.m. from Auckland to Christchurch. We landed around 10:15 a.m., and decided to head straight to the hotel we were staying at that night. Upon walking in the front doors of the hotel, I looked over and saw Chris, Becca, George, and Katie laying on these couches in the corner of the hotel. I walked over to them, and they said that they landed around 12 a.m., but could not find a hostel to stay at that night. Therefore, they slept in the airport from 12 a.m. until 8 a.m. on the hard floors of the Christchurch Airport. Luckily, Andrew arrived Saturday night so he did not have to sleep at the airport. After the two earthquakes, not much is open in Christchurch, so it is hard finding places to stay.
We all left our bags at the hotel counter since we could not check into our rooms until 1 p.m., and went to look for a place to have lunch. I asked the front desk where the closest restaurant was, and she said that there was not much open around the hotel, or even the city. The earthquake last September was bigger on the Richter Scale than the one in February, but the one in February caused more destruction. The lady at the front counter said most of the city is shut down because of the mass amount of destruction that happened. We all decided to just venture out since we had about 3 hours to kill before we could check into our rooms. Luckily, there was one place opened that was a couple blocks down the street. From a distance the sign said, "Chinese Food," but when I walked up closer, the menu was all fried food and hamburgers. I was a little confused as to why a Chinese Food Restaurant served American Food, but that was besides the point. We were all starving and needed something to eat.
After having lunch, we checked into our hotel and decided that we all wanted to see some of the destruction that happened from the earthquakes. I went to the front desk, and asked about the best place to see where the worst destruction was. She told me the city center downtown where all of the tallest buildings stood was the best place to go. I ordered a cab to come pick the 6 of us up, since we were about a 15 minute drive away. When we arrived, right away we saw the worst destruction and devastation I have ever seen in my life. The downtown area was blocked off by gates, and military people surrounded the gates so you could not enter. If you tried to get through, they told us we would get arrested since it is so unsafe to go through.
The 6 of us walked around the gates and through some of the neighborhoods for about 2 hours. The first thing I noticed was that there were signs posted on each of the doors. The first sign was an paper that said "Inspection" on it, which showed that the house had been inspected at one point. Under it, was a "X" that different numbers and symbols were put in the spaces showing if any people were in the house and how many deaths there were. Also, on each of the doors were huge signs that were either red, yellow, or white. The red sign meant that the building or house was extremely unsafe, and that at any moment it could collapse. The yellow sign meant that the building or house was unsafe to enter, but with some fixing, it would be okay to enter. The white sign meant that the building or house was cleared for people to enter. Here is what everything looked like:
These signs reminded me right away of Hurricane Katrina. Even though I did not go to New Orleans until about 2 years after the hurricane, I saw pictures of my grandparents house and all of the signs posted on each of the houses. Even today in New Orleans, there are still "X's" on some of the houses which state if there were any people found inside, if any pets were inside, the deaths, and something else I cannot remember.
Honestly, it brought tears to my eyes seeing all of the destruction that had happened. With the February earthquake only 2 months earlier, not much was cleaned up at all. There were houses that had all of the furniture and EVERYTHING else still inside that was in it even before the earthquake. I could tell that these people had not come back yet to gather all of their special belongings and did not start cleaning out their houses. I walked by a doctor's building that still had all of the file cabinets with all of the files that had fallen off of the shelves onto the floor. One of the houses, which really struck home, was completely sideways. The force from the earthquake caused the house to shift sideways, but still was standing.
There were buildings that were completely demolished, and just had bricks laying on the ground. I could not believe what mother nature could actually do to a city with so much character.
One of the most shocking things I saw was a building that everything was ripped off from the building and demolished, except the elevator shaft. The elevator shaft stood perfectly in the ground, while everything else around it was destroyed. Flowers were placed on the fences of the gates that surrounded downtown Christchurch.
There was a lady walking on the streets that we came across who was taking pictures. She walked up to us because she wanted to explain where everything used to be. She said things like, "The best burger place was right there" or "The playground where my kids grew up was over there." You could really see the sorrow in her eyes and hear it in her voice knowing that all of the memories she had in Christchurch have to only be relived in her mind.
Being in Christchurch made me think a lot about Hurricane Katrina and the destruction both the hurricane and earthquake caused. So many people lost their lives and their homes. Most of these people's lives will be changed forever and may never be the same. I heard from a lot of people that the downtown area was really nice and gave a lot to the city. Now, the city is a complete ghost town with no one around. It was literally dead silent when the 6 of us walked around because no one was there. I wanted to take something from the earthquake as a little sentimental item to bring back to America. I walked over to one of the buildings that had collapsed, and grabbed a brick from the ground to bring back. Whenever I look at that brick, I will remember how lucky I am for my life and remember to live everyday to the fullest because you never know what will happen in the future.
After about 2 hours of walking around, we took a taxi back to the hotel. The taxi driver had to keep swerving through the roads because many of them had huge holes or were completely destroyed from the earthquake. One of the roads we saw had a huge hole in the center that was probably 10 feet deep and stretched for about 100 feet.
When we got back to the hotel, we all took naps since we did not get much sleep and then went to dinner. After dinner, we found a bar close by that we went to for a bit before going to bed. Our tour started the next day, so we needed to get our rest!
Sunday, April 24th:
I woke up at 6:30 a.m. because George and I decided to run together before our tour group met at 8 a.m. outside of the hotel. Having mono and then having Erythema Nodosum on my legs, I have not been able to run or work out very much. The swelling has gone down a lot and the bumps are not as painful as they have been, so I decided to run and see how my legs held up. The run was so refreshing and really beautiful because we ran as the sun started to rise.
The tour group met at 8 a.m. right outside the hotel. There were 50 people in the tour group, and they were all my age. I was not expecting everyone to be my age, but it was extremely nice that I could relate to all of them and we could all hang out together. The first part of our journey began with a drive across the Canterbury plains. The drive was beautiful because the whole ride there were mountains, plains, and wide open spaces.
Our first stop was at Morlea Farm, which was a farm that was owned by a man and a woman. When we first arrived, we got out of the bus and walked into these people's house for morning tea. The woman made all 50 of us biscuits with homemade jam, cookies, sausage rolls, and pastrys. Being homemade, everything was SO GOOD! We sat at in their backyard and ate our breakfast while drinking our morning tea and juice.
The Morlea farm was absolutely beautiful. Once we were done eating, the man took us out back into the farm to explain how it was ran. He told us that sheep outnumber people in New Zealand 18 to 1. The husband also told us that just him and his wife run the farm. They have about 30 sheep, but nothing from the farm can be sold to anyone. For example, all of the sheep fur they shear in the spring time can only be donated, and not sold at all. All of the other animals such as the chickens and cows cannot be used to earn money for the couple. The government pays these people a regular salary for using their farm, which is a bit unfair to these people. The man told us that if he wants to burn trash, he just does it because there is no one else around. The farm was over 800 acres, and he said that he never locks his house even when he leaves for vacation and he leaves the keys in his car. He said that there are no predators for the animals, so there is no worries as to keeping the sheep safe. What a relaxed and worry free life these people live!
The man then explained everything about the sheep farm. He said that a lamb is a baby sheep up until the age of 1 year old. After 1 year old, they are called sheep. He brought us into the building where they shear the sheep in the spring. Since it is fall, he could not shear the sheep for us because he said that they would be too cold when winter approaches in a month. He gave us a demonstration though of the process they go through, and what everything looks like when it is done.
The next part of the visit was by far one of my favorite parts of the entire trip because I got to see SHEEP BEING HERDED! The man walked over to a cage, and opened it up where the dog who herded the sheep was held. The man had a whistle in his mouth, and would direct the dog with the whistle to herd the sheep. I asked the man if the dogs are born to herd the sheep and know what to do, or if they have to be trained. He said that they have instincts to herd these sheep, but they need to be disciplined when they are puppies. He said that female dogs are easier to control that male dogs, too. When the man blew the whistle, the dog ran all of the way up this hill behind the sheep, while the sheep stared at the dog in fright. Then the dog ran down the hill behind the sheep and the sheep ran extremely fast to get away from the dog. When the dog stopped running when she heard a whistle being blown, the sheep stopped too, which was right in front of us. I noticed that there was a lamb who did not follow the pack, but the man said that the lamb was left by the mother when it was born, and he had to raise the sheep through a bottle. Since the sheep was not around the others yet, it did not have the fear of the dog or to knew to run with the other sheep.
I asked the man why the sheep run away from the dog. He said that these sheep are so dumb, that they are actually afraid of the dog. The man said that when the female sheep become pregnant, many times they fall over. When they do this, the other sheep surround the female sheep on the ground, but only stare at her and do not do anything to help. Therefore, the man has to help the sheep up himself because the sheep are too dumb to help the female out. Even though these sheep outnumber the dog, the dog is smarter than these sheep. If any of the sheep got out of line, the dog would run over and growl at the sheep. Instantly, the sheep would get in line. It was amazing seeing this happen and for the dog to have this instinct. I have never seen anything like this before, so it was a great experience witnessing it in New Zealand. We got to take pictures with the sheep up close and with the dog, too!
Once leaving the farm, we headed off to Lake Tekapo. This lake is a glacier lake that was a very teal blue color. Since it is a glacier lake, the water was freezing! It was absolutely beautiful and the scenery was amazing.
There is a church on the lake that is the most photographed church in the world. I am not sure how they know that, but that is what our tour guide told us.
Here is a panoramic picture that Andrew took with his camera!
The next place we stopped was Lake Pukaki, which is another glacier lake that is a lot milkier than Lake Tekapo. In the background of this lake, is the famous mountain called Mt. Cook. It was a bit cloudy, so we could not really see the entire mountain, but we ended up seeing in later on in the trip closer up.
After seeing Lake Tekapo and Pukaki, we headed to Lake Ohau where we stayed for the night. Lake Ohau during the winter is one of the top spots in New Zealand to ski and snowboard. The hotel we stayed at was secluded from everything else, which made it so beautiful. Our hotel room faced the lake which was surrounded by the mountains. The view we had that night could not have been any better. We were allowed to swim in the lake, but it was FREEZING! Our tour guide told us we could swim with our mouth open because it is a fresh water lake! There were mountains surrounding the lake that had lines running down it. Our tour guide told us that when the glaciers melted a long time ago, it left lines running down the mountain because the water used to run down this path.
Our Hotel at Lake Ohau:
After arriving, we were served dinner which was a delicious lasagna dinner with salad, bread, fruit, and vegetables. Since there was nothing around the hotel, all of us went in the jacuzzi and the gameroom that night, and went to the bar at the hotel. It was so relaxing and I had such a great time that night hanging out with my friends. The day was a perfect start to the trip, and I could not have asked for anything better. This was the beginning of me falling in love with New Zealand.
This is it for now, as this entry is super long. I will try and update the next couple of days of the trip tomorrow, so check back!
Heaps of Love,
Heidi
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