Land and Sea

Today we got up early to meet our boat for a ride to Resolution Bay.  From there, we were doing a 2-hour hike to Ship's Cove.  The nice thing is that it's out in Queen Charlotte Sound (where we came in on the ferry) and it's an absolutely beautiful area.  The funny thing is, we were on the Cougar Cruise Line.  Haha, I found that really funny...Cougar Cruise.

This is our boat from the Cougar Cruise line, leaving us behind!

I tell you, the walk up one side was a real challenge in terms of aerobic and cardiovascular workout.




Some of the trees in the forest are tall and spindly.  They look kinda weird.

Then there are ferns and lush tropical-like forest.

The other day I mentioned all the predators introduced to New Zealand by Europeans.  There are traps set every few feet to trap and poison them.  They are doing their darnedest to try to eradicate these predators.  There are a few islands in Queen Charlotte Sound that are free of predators.  So they release kiwi into the wild there.

We finally reached the top!  So beautiful.

These are ferns, but they remind me of fiddleheads we get in the East in Canada.  Only much larger.

This is for Dave...they were mountain biking on this trail.  But all the bikers were walking up one side.  Impossible to bike up.

And this is Ship's Cove...our destination.

The drive down to Christchurch is also absolutely beautiful.  A good chunk of the drive is along the Pacific.  It's rugged and water crashing everywhere, and of course, the tall hills and windy roads are also beautiful.

While we were having breakfast at our B&B in the morning, our hostess was telling us about all the seals we'll see on the way down to Christchurch.  She was right as they were everywhere.  There are several seals here, basking on the rocks.  We even saw them on a rock that was protruding above the highway.

But in addition, she told us about this area with a short walking trail beside a stream.  You walk up to this waterfall where there's a pool at the bottom.  In that pool, all these baby seals are swimming and playing in the water.  It's absolutely incredible.  Just the babies.  The mothers are basking down by the ocean.  All along the stream, baby seals are heading up to the pool.

This little guy had just arrived and was scratching an itch while sitting in some shallow water at the pool.

This little guy was further downstream and playing with another little guy there.  I don't know if they were heading up or down.

We finally arrived at our B&B in Christchurch around 6:30 pm.  It was a long day, but we don't have to get up early tomorrow morning.  This is a shot of our B&B from the front.

We headed up the street 5-6 blocks to find some dinner.  Success!  Now we're tired and stuffed.