Driving
on the "wrong" side of the road took a bit to get used
to. Mariah got a kick out of sitting on the driver's side --
and even remembered to go to the correct side of the car to get
in most of the time. I, well, I only turned onto the wrong side
of the road twice -- and thankfully didn't cause any accidents!
After staying with Anne and Edward for three days we ventured
out on our own for an overnight before going to Anne Grassham's
farm. We drove from Christchurch across Arthur's Pass in the
Southern Alps to the west coast of the South Island. From the
plains of the east thru the mountains is incredible, then you
enter a green lush tropicalness that is a pleasant surprise.
The west coast gets LOTS more rain every year than the east side
of the island because of the height of the mountains (they are
snow covered year-round).
Because of the extreme flatness of the area around Christchurch, the rivers don't quite know where to go so they look like this: normally with one main stream with multiple branches. They are called braided rivers and sometimes they are full from bank to bank. The gray area is all pebbly rocks with not much sand.
Another by-product of the flatness in the
Chrischurch area is the windbreaks. They go on and on and are
grown just to block the wind, protecting everything in the wind's
path: livestock, gardens, buildings, cars driving. The break
on the right is probably 10 foot tall and on the left 2 to 3
times that. The taller breaks were usually a type of pine tree
that is trimmed to square-ness.
