Hello All,
I wanted to report back once more about my stay in New Zealand. This trip, I got to see a bit more of the interior of the South Island of New Zealand where Christchurch is located on teh east shore. John, my coworker, and I drove (yes, on teh left side of teh road in this country) to Arthur's Pass in the Alps (The name of the mountains here). It is an impressive place. It is a mountain pass - with really interesting terrain: Sharp valleys, tall snow capped mountains, springs, swamps, forest, tundra (yes all in one place!), waterfalls - in fact John and I got to go up to one called Devils' punch bowl - the water at teh base of the falls is blue@ Overall the water was very, very clean adn clear. The road was impressively full of hair pin turns and extremely shear cliffs. At eh base of this valley was an impressive river - at the beginning of the pass - the river has lots of areas of wash, or just dry river bed. Much of the river bed is rock - granite type. Visually this is an impressive place to visit and see - very dramatic.
I'll send more as I can!
Take care!
Matthew