Thursday, March 6, 2008

South Island New Zealand 1

I am breaking up our travel on South Island into two parts. This is Part 1. Now, we are onboard the Interislander which is the ferry that took us from Wellington to Picton. The distance between the two islands across the Cook Straits is about 92 km or 58 miles and the journey takes 3 hours where you can enjoy scenic views including Marlborough Sounds. There were livestock, cars, trucks, trailers, and sometimes train coach on the ferry. Here’s the virtual journey with maps, description and pictures. For more information of the ferry, pictures and virtual tour onboard click here and navigate.

Below is a map of South Island by courtesy of backpack New Zealand.
For pictures of South Island not taken by me, click here.
If you look at the road map above, we traveled and visited Picton, Blenheim, Kaikoura, Christchurch, Lake Tekapo, Mt. Cook, Pukaia, and Wanaka. We ran out of time and could not make it to Milford Sound and Queenstown.

Blenheim is a small peaceful town and it was beautiful at night. If you like to go for whale watch, go to Kaikoura. This is a picture of me goofing around in Kaikoura. I was sitting on a bench, waiting for an opportunity to spot the whale.

Christchurch looks like a British city with a population of about 350,000 people. It is also known as the Garden City. We stayed at Rolleston House, which had a fenced up parking lot (car park) and within walking distance to the museum, Art Centre, Art Gallery and Botanic Gardens. The flea market accepted payment by credit cards which amused us.

This picture was taken at the fenced up parking lot mentioned above. We had a room to ourselves and a nice parking lot.
This picture was taken at the Botanic Garden. My brother said his sister looks like a doll.

Below is the picture of the flea market near the gallery which accepts payment by credit card.

Oops! I'm not sure whether below is the Art Center and Gallery. If not, it must be part of the museum. The museum is located next to the Botanic Gardens.
Below is a picture of hand-made fountains at a park in Christchurch. They're pretty.
Below is a picture of a floral clock which resembles the ones I have seen in Melbourne and Taiwan. I don't know who copied who. Maybe they didn't copy each other but have liked minds.

Look at the English Language College and Price Water House Centre. They are facing such scenic views. I decided to feed the doves.

For more attractions and activities in Christchurch, click here.

Next, we went to Lake Tekapo. I will continue with the rest of our journey soon. (Correction: After Christchurch, we went to Mt. Cook)

17 comments:

Terence Chang said...

Jesie:

Isn't it a nice trip? I Love those photo.

Just wondering if you are OK to let me use one of your smiley photos on my happiest blog at Smiles that make my day

It will link back to your blog and post.

Thanks!

jesie said...

Terence,
I enjoy travel for leisure.

No a problem. I have so many pictures here. Just wonder which one you like best.

Thanks.

Terence Chang said...

Jesie:

I love the photo of you in front of the red flowers. That is a great smile photo.

I will let you know when I have that post. ;-)

Thank you!

JesieBlogJourney said...

Terence,
It's one of my brother's favorite pictures too. I think the flowers belong to the rhododendron family. It was taken at the botanic garden in Christchurch NZ. We have plenty of them here in the U.S. too.

MC said...

Hey... thanks for the visit to Asian Tourism. Anyways, I forgot the address of the Bagan Hailam Seafood but I have search a map for you:
http://www.dromoz.com/directory/place/?id=17522.
I also found this one : Address:Kg Baru Bagan Hailam, Port Klang, Selangor

jesie said...

mc,
Thanks. I hope I will have time to go to so many places and 3 countries in 3 weeks on my next trip.

Terence Chang said...

Jesie:

Thank you for sharing your wonderful smile and travel photos. Now your happy smile is collected on Smiles That Make My day.

You can see your smile at Happy Smile - A colorful smile like the flowers that make my day.

Please remember to vote for your smile. To let the world know your smile, feel free to write a post about it and link to your smile.

Thank you for sharing.

MC said...

wow.. 3 countries in 3 weeks.. That means 1 week per country.. Nice.. Anyways, care to exchange links?

JesieBlogJourney said...

Thanks. I like your Asian Tourist if you want to exchange.

MC said...

Yep.. I want to exchange link. By the way I added you link already. Please add mine too. Thanks..

Anonymous said...

wah NZ.. my dream place... i hope i can go there one day

jesie said...

mc,
Thanks, I have added you too.

Keeyit,
You will love NZ. If you have read the earlier post, you will notice that we rented a car. I plan to post how we plan and where we stayed which is practical and affordable.

Tourism is a major industry in NZ and it is very well organized.
I wanted to see more than where the tour would cover so we explored on our own; three of us in one car.

Come back for Part 2 and how we planned our trip.

Unknown said...

keke!your borther is right you look like a doll that trap in the red flowers.I hope i could travle to NZ one day.

Rozella said...

Wow, you have been to a lot of places! That's incredible!

jesie said...

Sweetiepie,
Hehe, my brother is full of humour. He likes to take pictures of me with the flowers. All my friends who have been to NZ love the country.

Rozella,
I have covered 16 countries. There are more that I want to visit.

You have a nice places in Sabah itself; watching turtles, scuba diving, hiking, Orang Utan Sanctuary, Crocodile Farm, etc. When I went to East Malaysia, someone at the security point asked me whether I was going back to my hometown. I look like a Bidayuh.

Mei-Wah said...

i wanna go all around the world too!!!

JesieBlogJourney said...

Mei Wah,
If I have a chance, I would also like to travel around the world too.