Week 11: Milford Sound, Mt. Cook, and Christchurch

Greetings!

It hasn’t been too long since our last post, but we’re on a four-hour ferry from the South Island to the North and it felt like a good time for blogging.  

When we left you, we were about to embark on an overnight cruise of Milford Sound.  Milford Sound is a smaller fjord than Doubtful Sound, its neighbor to the south, and I’ll let the pictures speak to its remarkable beauty. Our ship was a smaller version of the one you’ll see in the photos, which slept about 60 people whereas ours accommodated around 30.  The boys were excited to sleep on a boat and our cabin was a tiny space, large enough only to fit two sets of bunk beds.  Cam & Wes definitely have scenery fatigue, if not at least fjord fatigue after already cruising Doubtful Sound, and spent most of their time making their way through the ship’s extensive selection of board games while Aimee and I enjoyed our time above deck.

We lost cell service at around 3pm local time on Friday during our drive to Milford Sound and didn’t return to a coverage area until the next day around noon.  As a result, we spent Friday night on the ship having no idea what had occurred in Christchurch that afternoon, only learning of the terrorist attack when texts and news alerts started popping up on our phones Saturday morning.

We arrived in Christchurch on Monday evening, after spending one night on the southern coast and then another in Mt. Cook National Park, where we did some light hiking.  

Lake Pukaki

Aoraki/Mt. Cook

The Southern Alps from the Hooker Valey Track

The Southern Alps

As some of you may know, Christchurch, a city with about the same population as Milwaukee, already was in recovery mode from a one-two punch of earthquakes in September 2010 and February 2011.  The first was a stronger 7.1 magnitude quake, but centered farther from the city and 11 kilometers underground.  It also struck at 4:30am, while most of the city was still at home.  The second was a magnitude 6.3, but occurred right under the city, 5k deep, at just after noon.  Almost all of the downtown buildings were destroyed and many residential neighborhoods were deemed lost and not suitable for rebuilding.  Nearly 200 people died.  

As a result of the devastation in the city, residents and businesses had to relocate to surrounding areas and the center is just now starting to regain its heartbeat.  Almost all of the buildings – residential, commercial, and retail – are brand new and very modern, which evokes a fairly strange feeling when you know the city is over 175 years old.  There are a few tall buildings that survived the earthquake, along with many historical structures (churches, mostly) that suffered extensive damage but which the city is trying to preserve. The city’s cathedral still sits right in the center of town without a front façade.

As a result of the attack on Friday, the center of the city was even more quiet than usual on Monday, with many people attending an organized vigil.  Despite the frequency of mass shootings in the US, including white supremacist attacks, and other than the 2012 shooting at the Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, WI, we had never been so close to an attack like this.  In addition to horror at the loss of lives and disgust with the familiar theme of whites-of-European-descent murdering others out of hate, Aimee and I both felt a sense of shame and responsibility for the Christchurch attack.  Even though we know that white supremacy and associated violence is a worldwide problem, the way it is practiced and, apparently, condoned in the United States makes it feel like an American export.  It’s a much more serious version of the shame we feel when we see McDonald’s and KFC when we travel: is this really what we have to give to the world?

Like the US, New Zealand has fairly liberal gun laws, but they certainly do not have the same history of mass shootings.  And it seems that they, unlike us, intend to take steps to prevent things like this from happening again.  Jacinda Adern, the well-loved prime minister, has vowed to institute new gun-control laws within 10 days of the Christchurch attacks.

On a more positive Christchurch note, the city built a huge, child-designed playground in the central business district on the site of an earthquake-demolished building, which the boys loved.  Aimee and I took them there after we popped down to a coffee shop early in the morning for a coffee/breakfast date while the boys slept in.

Our last long drive of our month on the South Island took us from Christchurch back north to Marlborough where we caught the ferry to Wellington.  The drive, like all of the rest, was beautiful but perhaps notable because of the still-visible damage caused by another earthquake that struck 2 hours north of Christchurch in 2016.  The route mostly hugs the coast and the earthquake caused huge landslides on the adjacent mountains.  They’re still engaged in extensive repairs to the road and you can easily see huge scars on the mountains where the rocks and trees were shaken free.

We have one week left of this incredible adventure.  Our plan is to spend a couple days hitting some Lord of the Rings spots, including Hobbiton, on our way up to the Bay of Plenty where we reserved a house on a beach for our last few days in New Zealand.  

We are all looking forward to going home, but the emotion of ending this journey is definitely starting to hit me.  I hope I can find the words to express this feeling.

Talk to you soon.

Love,

Max, Aimee, Cam & Wes