New Zealand

Here we are in New Zealand, the land of remarkable beauty and pristine nature. Also known as The Land of the Long White Cloud, which, go figure, there are a lot of looong clouds here (would I have noticed it if it weren't for that name? Hmmm.... actually, yes!).

Christchurch is known as the 2nd England because of the HUGE English population as well as the very English feel to the city. Its small (but then again, NZ only has 4 million in the entire country! Isn't that amazing? I think Chicago alone has, what? 8 million?), and very quaint with gothic architecture and lots of cathedrals and museums.

Its also cool that off in the distance you can see the Southern Alps range (on a clear day of course). Our 1st day here ended up being busy enough - we spent the morning at the Botanical Garden, which was nice to stroll around and look at the pretty plants and flowers (some yet to bloom). This one is called 'Ladies purse':

and then the afternoon at Mt. Cavendish. We took a bus there and then a gondola up the mountain... the view were spectacular and we literally were in awe looking at Lyttleton Harbor and the Banks Peninsula. You can even see the Pacific ocean!

The best part was watching the colors in the lake change as the clouds moved. It was really really amazing! And we spent a good hour there taking pictures, enjoying a nice cup of hot chocolate (yummy!), and just enjoying the view. As we were just relaxing and killing time, we got recommendations from a couple of people to take a "nice, leisurely stroll" down the mountain. The man was a bit aged and said he did it all the time, so we thought, "why not?" Soo... we began our stroll down, still enjoying the great views, taking pictures, and taking our time. We are both avid exercises (hey, wasn't it just a few weeks ago I did a 1/2 ironman?), and were confident in our descent down. Well, the path turned into this gravel road, and then came the "Caution" signs and then "watch slippery path" signs. "Yea, yea" we thought... once again, we are young healthy individuals. We slowed down a tad and tried not to let this older couple with their dog whizz past us bother us "they must live here." Well, then Lauren almost took a dive. She laughed and then I laughed. We started up again, and then she almost fell again! We laughed some more, although it had a more nervous edge to it. Then I almost took a dive! Uh oh... this was becoming dangerous! We then REALLY took our time and were watching every step. We tried NOT to let at least 10 more people that were running UP and down get to us (I was pretty impressed!). These NZ folk are fit! So much for me feeling in shape! It ended up being quite a work out, and lucky for us we found some distractions like the sheeps in an adjacent field (actually, I believe I heard that NZ has more sheep than people!). Well.... we made it down to the bottom safe and sound. We almost wanted to go back up the gondola to tell the guy, "this isn't exactly a leisurely stroll" and "umm... having the last few meters at the bottom doesn't count as 'its not that steep' " but then figured it is actually a leisurely stroll for them!

Its a lot steeper than it looks! I swear!

Now I need to rest my legs!

p.s. Random thought... it is now a 17 hour time difference to Chicago. Crazy!! And where is Chicago from this point? Hmm....