Our Trip... Southern Scenic Route, New Zealand

Tomorrow we leave Invercargill to go back on the Southern Scenic Route to Dunedin. After spending the night there and doing some sightseeing, we'll head back towards Queenstown and go to Wanaka where we've booked an apartment for the month of March.

The section of NZ from Te Anau to Invercargill to Dunedin and back to Queenstown is entirely new to us. It's fun to travel around someplace new, but we're excited about the prospects of being in one place for a month. We've already talked to a guy at a bike store in Wanaka and will probably buy used bikes. Bob will golf the Wanaka golf course too. Also, there are walking tracks right outside of where we'll be living. We're looking forward to getting back into shape, eating out less and staying in one place. Amen.

Lastly...
The whole of New Zealand is on tsunami alert. We thought we'd go to Stewart Island today, but the ferry is canceled. The people already on the island either have to fly back over, or stay the night. The train we took from Picton to Kaikoura is also closed down and not going to run until the tsunami warnings are lifted. The train tracks run right along the ocean on part of the trip. I remember when we were on the train a few weeks ago. The train commentator told us to look out the window across the ocean. He said that if we jumped in, we'd have to swim 5,000km before we'd land in Chile! It's hard to imagine that an earthquake that far away could cause a tsunami to come this way, but I guess the warnings are true, although they have been downgraded. Also, the same train commentator told us that the ocean used to be much further away from the tracks, but over the years, it had risen and come closer and closer to the tracks. He suggested that one day the tracks would have to be moved----- that day may be coming!
Cheers from NZ,
Mary and Bob