travelswithalice

March 18, 2018

New Zealand: South Island

CHRISTCHURCH

Two things I love in Christchurch: one is a building; the other, a fountain.

The Great Hall: a restored part of the original neo-gothic college building, built in the 1870s and damaged in the earthquakes of 2011 and 2012. Old Canterbury College, now The Arts Centre.

Rising ten meters from the waters of a pond in the Archery Lawn of the Botanic Gardens is local artist Sam Mahon’s magnificent, hauntingly mysterious sculpture “Regret”.

A hand-cranked mechanical fountain masterfully crafted from spidery steel rods, it has exquisite moving parts that variously rise and fall, rotate, and revolve. It is spectacular in scale and delicate in execution, like some gorgeous piece of jewelry for a water goddess.

QUEENSTOWN

From Christchurch, we flew to Queenstown as a staging point for Milford Sound and the trip back home.

The Queenstown Hilton is located at the edge of Lake Wakatipu. The location couldn’t be more beautiful!

I have memorized the position of virtually every star in the nightsky as seen from our bedroom window where we kept the curtains open all day and all night.

MILFORD SOUND

To break the long drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound, we stayed in Manapouri, at the edge of the Fiordland National Park.

Murrell House was built in 1889 by the present owner’s great grandfather. It has a privileged position at the edge of Lake Manapouri, where Philippa Murrell says they often get double rainbows perfectly framed by the garden in the back.

The weather didn’t look promising but Philippa assured us that Milford Sound is even nicer when it rains. She was right of course, because the rain multiplied the number of waterfalls to be seen on the way and in the sound itself.