Yesterday was the first sunny day we've had in ages, so I decided to go exploring. I live on the western edge of Christchurch, so I just hopped on my bike and was in the countryside in ten minutes, which was both surprising and amazing. Here are some of my pictures:
The road I went biking down.
It ran parallel with the airport. They weren't kidding when they said New Zealand was sheep country.
More sheep. They were all really close to the fence, so I thought I'd get a close-up of a cute lamb or something, but they all ran away baa-ing. Apparently I'm really scary...
The Southern Alps. Aren't they gorgeous? Also, check out the sky and the clouds. The Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, which translates to the Land of the Long White Cloud.
More awesome views of the Southern Alps, except there was a fence in the way this time. They seem to like fences here, although the fences are usually a lot prettier around the houses. When I was trying to find a flat, the first one I looked at had a huge fence, maybe seven feet tall or so. I was privately thinking that I didn't want to live in a place that was so closed in, but then the owner mentioned the tall fence as one of the best features of the house, since it gave so much privacy. Interesting how differently people view things.
I don't know if it's shown up on the news at all at home, but there have been some really intense storms in New Zealand recently, with huge old trees being torn down and houses destroyed. Thankfully Christchurch was almost entirely by-passed, but we did get quite a bit of rain and all the roads out of Christchurch were blocked off for a day or so because of the flooding.
I don't think huge storms are normally a part of the winter weather here, but it is winter. It can be a bit chilly, but I've yet to see the temperature go below freezing. There's no snow, except in the mountains. It is cold enough that quite a few of the trees shed their leaves in the winter, though. Here's an orchard that I biked past. It both looks and feels a lot like fall in Vermont, after all the foliage is gone.
Except when you go past one of these :)
I went on a bit of a detour when I got back into the city, and went to check out the Avonhead Park (Christchurch is broken up into tons of different suburbs and Avonhead is the name of the one where I live).
More of the Avonhead Park, with the Southern Alps in the background. Rugby is huge here, but soccer seems to be a favorite casual sport, and also a favorite with the kids. I believe they do call it soccer here, rather than football, which is nice because it saves me a lot of confusion. :)
The road I went biking down.
It ran parallel with the airport. They weren't kidding when they said New Zealand was sheep country.
More sheep. They were all really close to the fence, so I thought I'd get a close-up of a cute lamb or something, but they all ran away baa-ing. Apparently I'm really scary...
The Southern Alps. Aren't they gorgeous? Also, check out the sky and the clouds. The Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, which translates to the Land of the Long White Cloud.
More awesome views of the Southern Alps, except there was a fence in the way this time. They seem to like fences here, although the fences are usually a lot prettier around the houses. When I was trying to find a flat, the first one I looked at had a huge fence, maybe seven feet tall or so. I was privately thinking that I didn't want to live in a place that was so closed in, but then the owner mentioned the tall fence as one of the best features of the house, since it gave so much privacy. Interesting how differently people view things.
I don't think huge storms are normally a part of the winter weather here, but it is winter. It can be a bit chilly, but I've yet to see the temperature go below freezing. There's no snow, except in the mountains. It is cold enough that quite a few of the trees shed their leaves in the winter, though. Here's an orchard that I biked past. It both looks and feels a lot like fall in Vermont, after all the foliage is gone.
I went on a bit of a detour when I got back into the city, and went to check out the Avonhead Park (Christchurch is broken up into tons of different suburbs and Avonhead is the name of the one where I live).
More of the Avonhead Park, with the Southern Alps in the background. Rugby is huge here, but soccer seems to be a favorite casual sport, and also a favorite with the kids. I believe they do call it soccer here, rather than football, which is nice because it saves me a lot of confusion. :)
2 comments:
Wonderful pictures. I thought that it look a bit like VT with mountains and green fields. Then I came to the palm tree.
Interesting archery target! It's a good thing that you also posted a picture of the bow, just in case any of the Pelkeys are bloggers...
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