Mawhorter Sabbatical 2013: Christchurch

Monday in between rain showers, I had 2 hours of dry to explore the botanic garden. Before and afterward I enjoyed the local museum with lots of artifacts from Antarctic expeditions. I would have liked to see Christchurch downtown before the earthquake, but one can't even walk through it now. Across from the botanics was a wonderful-looking art museum, but the spire is sitting on the parking lot and it's covered in scaffolding.

The whole town is one big construction site, but they are doing something fun by sponsoring art in the empty spaces and murals on the walls of buildings that are tumbled down.

In the afternoon, after Rich's talk, since it was raining and clearly not an outdoor day, he and I went to the air force museum and then started up to Arthur's Pass. It was pouring and windy, so we only squinted dimly through the rain at Castle Hill rocks, where we had hoped to hike .

We expected the morning to be rainy, but it was crystal clear with fresh snow up on the tops of the mountains. At the top of Arthur's Pass, we stayed in one of the cleanest, homiest youth hostels.I got up early and explored the small town. Right behind the chapel beside Avalanche Creek Waterfall, there was a quote from Job on a brass plaque on a rock that expresses the awe I feel while experiencing this beauty and magnificence:

Job. 26:14: "And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”

Before heading down to the coast, we hiked to 3 waterfalls, including Devil's Punchbowl, through mossy forests with wonderful views of snow and glaciers on the peaks.

After we came out on the west coast, we drove south to do a walk up to a Franz Josef glacier.

Walk up to Franz Josef Glacier

Then we drove up the coast with wonderful views of sea stacks and crashing waves, reminding us of the Oregon coast. Just at the end of sunset, we got to Pancake Rocks, a walk along the cliffs with some distinctive rock formations, and thunderous booming waves making mist.