John & Anne Wiley

Well, I’ve finally reached this Over Under Adventure’s epiphany of our NZ flying (Wanaka, the second and most amazing of our two fabulous flights in a single day). These are the first of a very few pix I’ll post among my many faves among about 1,400 from our flight with CFI extraordinaire Gabrielle of U-Fly Wanaka. She generously took time out from her afternoon of Christmas eve to give us a leisurely eagle’s eye view of the Hobbit wilderness.

1332 Wanaka Takeoff

Having just enjoyed the beautiful drive from Clyde (I’ll spare you those magnificent pix), lifting off from Wanaka airport opened a whole new world. This short flight took the glories we’d seen from the road and expanded this striking scenery into an entirely new dimension of delights. After a glimpse of Lake Wanaka we turned East climbing out over Lake Hawea looking at the mountains beyond, and of course a vast panorama of similar wonders in every direction.

133407 Lake Hawea

Below us the clear water unlocked shades of blue that dazzled the rods and cones in our overwhelmed eyes even beneath the high clouds. Like this sandy delta at the mouth of Craig “Burn” (aka stream).

1343 Shades of Blue Burn

We meandered across the Neck to Lake Wanaka, where the North tip offers this view up to the distant craggy peak of Mount Aspiring.

1421 Wanaka to Aspiring

Everywhere there are waterfalls of every description, including these gossamer living threads of water wisping down a high green rock wall next to the lake.

1485 Living Thread

Turning up the Young River at Makarora to Gillespie Pass into Siberia Valley and over icebergs in Lake Crucible, we followed the Wilkin River. As with our travels and flights in the glacial areas of North America we wondered aloud many times during the flight, what this area must have looked like before global warming.

1503 Glacier Shadows

From the bare carved rock not yet covered with vegetation, you can see the “shadows” of glaciers that have recently melted. We felt all the more fortunate to see what remains, with the flying probably made easier by the warmer weather.

1516 Carved Crevice

Did I mention that the waterfalls are innumerable and diverse? Check out this magnificent pair.

1542 Tumbling Falls

Even though it’s “only” 8,340′ above sea level, Mount Pollux looks much like the higher Canadian and U.S. Rockies. The tall glacial waterfall into Lake Lucidus is breathtaking.

1597 Mt.Pollux & Lk.Lucidus

From Mt. Pollux across Rabbit Pass and West of Mt Aspiring we passed many iconic peaks of the “Southern Alps” that I’ve not yet been able to name definitively, apparently due to not recording a track in the free Android Avare aviation app. But thanks to help emailed from Gabrielle I’ll eventually figure most of them out using gMaps and NZ topo. Suffice it so say they are somewhat similar, different, innumerable, and few less striking than this.

1665 Clouded Majesty

The high clouds dimming this pic made it easier for my camera to capture the gradations between dark stone and brilliant snow, and reduced winds to make it a smooth ride. Yet there was enough breeze in some of the canyons to tickle the towering waterfalls.

1682 Wafted Waterfalls

When we finished gorging on mountains and glaciers to find our way through the broken clouds down to Big Bay, a little yellow plane (Piper Cub?) was about to take off from the isolated beach. Can you make it out right at the bottom-right corner?

1848 Big Bay “Airport”

Amazing as this brief flight had been already, we were about to begin the second of three main parts. In case you’re following along on maps (and especially if you can use our Contact Form here to name some features), here’s an approximate map of Gabrielle’s typical route.

Gabrielle Map, Part 1

As you’ll note, our route differed as we kept well clear of clouds, including the fact we reached the coast at Big Bay rather than Martin’s Bay just to the South. Still ahead in Part 2 of this second flight of an enchanted day, is our flight along the coast down to the mouth of Milford Sound! 😀

Again celebrating our decision to fly rather than drive, the hop from Christchurch to Dunedin in a smaller airliner flying lower gave us great vistas.

120519 Distant Mt. Cook

Too bad cameras don’t capture the beauty we enjoyed, but it was better as we gradually descended.

122946 Hills to Mountains

Soon the hills gave way to flatland, where we saw this TXT message.

123042 TXT to Aircraft

We took a leisurely and sociable shuttle van to town. The driver and other passenger even let me stop at the small airport on the way to town, but alas no contact with any GA flight prospects. After hotel check-in we set out to explore the city, and were immediately captivated by the many murals.

152406 Consumption Art

Thinking of food, we checked out the elite Bacchus but they weren’t open so we returned down the hypnotic stairway to snack and stroll instead.

162228 Wooden Stair

Māori culture is embraced in New Zealand, as with this bi-lingual sign on a university building.

72148 To Where Wanna To Go

My brain refused to pronounce it correctly, perhaps because Dunedin is a city we so wanted to go. The streets are lively, colorful, friendly and fun.

123316 Street Colors

We loved having two nights here that gave us three different days to explore, mostly on foot. In addition to several museums we haunted, a highlight was taking in lots of street art, sculpture, and murals.

124342 Flying To Pieces

Art has an effect on us. As we strolled, art even appeared suddenly at the end of blind alleys.

124447 Lost Art

Before long we were seeing art everywhere, including this wall in earthquake country with a relevant sign.

124922 Fair Warning

Many of the murals probably have a logical story, but I kinda hope not because they can readily evoke responses far beyond logic and language.

123417 Enigma

As you can begin to see from these mercifully “few” examples, our wander took us far into the realm of the muse, where everything is art.

124159 Performance Art

Even everyday directional signs became somewhat metaphoric.

125244 Hope Lies Beneath

If you’re not already overwhelmed by all this, here’s a more mundane pic from a different day. The old train station is beautiful inside and out, making it popular with visitors including art-dazed Yanks. 🙂

163834 Train Station

One last highlight is this view that enhanced a great and inexpensive meal just a short, scenic and immersive city bus ride up at the Luna Cafe.

133208 Luna Cafe

We barely scratched the surface, adding to our itch for a return trip.

Several people suggested we skip or even avoid Christchurch on this trip, yet we felt drawn to spend a night there. So after our blissful small plane ride out of Ardmore, we shuffled back into a jet for the first time since the Sydney jaunt. Takeoff provided yet another perspective on the Auckland area, climbing across the bay toward the West coast.

115444 Jet Again

With all the clouds I thought we might not see much, but happily enjoyed many scenic views through broken clouds. Especially over the South Island, like this glimpse of alpine Lake Tennyson about 20 miles North of Hammer Springs.

123834 Lake Tennyson

Soon we were descending over the great turquoise Waimakariri River with Christchurch Int’l (CHC) just below that red tip of our jet fairing at the upper-left.

125242 Waimakariri River

The city sprawled below us on the wide plain as our jet turned “base” toward the airport, giving a sense of the setting next to the East coast with snow-capped peaks beyond.

125420 CHC Approach

After the familiar process of getting to the city center and checked into our hotel, we set out to explore. There seemed to be lots of public art, more graffiti than we’d seen elsewhere in New Zealand, and it was shocking to see so much destruction from the quakes.

173937 Crushed Cathedral

Behind a fence stood the remains of this large cathedral being heroically rebuilt. Getting closer and walking to the right we could see inside.

174030 Restoring from Rubble

From the many damaged buildings still standing, most in varying stages of repair, we got hints of the quakes’ power. From all the bare empty large lots among the few high buildings, we got a sense of how different Christchurch looks to locals. From all the construction cranes we could see how many new (and highly quake-resistant) buildings were going into some of those empty lots.

174052 New Construction

A few blocks away we found much more public art, and refuge from the rubble, at placid Victoria Square along the relaxing Avon River.

175055 Avon River Relaxation

Back on the street, we paused to watch this couple practicing their moves at the Dance O Mat.

182951 Dancing in the Streets

All the destruction seemed to have brought out creativity everywhere and a palpable mix of hope, fear, courage, despair, and some sort of somber resolve among the survivors, and splashed in bright colors on the surviving buildings.

184308 Survivors

The streets close around our hotel were colorful and inviting, yet felt strangely quiet as if awaiting more recovery to blossom into something new arising from a great little city.

185135 Quietly Waiting

We were very glad to have visited, yet also glad to spend only a night of our precious time there. Plus we celebrated having decided to fly rather than stick with our plan to drive between cities. It gave us views like this taking off the next day.

20114524 Sprawling Christchurch