This is a post of two halves

 They tell it like it is in New Zealand! We love quirky signposts that say things like 'wrong way' and this one fitted the category of quirky nicely! We found it on the road from Kaikora to Sefton where my cousin Jude and her husband Alan farm.

 We thought that you might be interested to see what happens to some of the wood we have previously talked about - house building, here at Pegasus a new town under development near Christchurch. This building style is typical as is the single storey - not a bungalow!!!! It was interesting to see how Pegasus was developed as we have a similar project - Wixams, down the road from us at home. The main difference is here you buy a plot or section and then go to a house shop and buy a house which you can build or is built for you

 As was the case here with the farm -Summer Lea Farm, one of our most favourite places in the whole world. We spent a couple of days with Jude and Alan, helping out with the cattle when we could and catching up with all the news since we had last seen them at Picton. Whitebait patties and crayfish were eaten and wine enjoyed with these two very special people.

 Having left the farm we spent a couple of days with another very special lady, my cousin Noeline, and her husband Ivan in Oamaru. We had a very wet trip to Aoraki/Mt. Cook and so no photos of that. We hope to return there in a day or two so hopefully the weather will be better and Fogg will be able to do the highest mountain in New Zealand justice with his camera. On the way back to Oamaru we passed through Mackenzie country and Phileas was delighted to find another ancestor, this time the sheep rustler and his famous dog, John (Jack) MacKenzie after whom this area is named.

 We drove to Queenstown yesterday through some unbelievably beautiful countryside with snow capped hills and mountains. As we arrived in Cromwell these snow clouds were tumbling down presaging today's wintry weather. It is very cold in Queenstown!!! But as this final photo shows vey beautiful, this last shot a view from our breakfast table this morning.

More from this area on our next blog.

Christchurch after the earthquake

This part of the blog has no photographs as we felt it quite inappropprite to photograph places which are still technically graves or the detritus of people's broken lives.
We want to convey that the aftermath of the two earthquakes and all the subsequent aftershocks are far more significant than we have been shown on UK news. Many people asked us before we left if we were going to cancel our trip, were very surprised when we said that we would be visiting family and friends in and around CHCH. We were determined to come to NZ and could not miss seeing people who mean a great deal. So when we were at the farm Jude and Alan took us into the city so that we and they (it was their first return after the 2nd quake) could see the progress being made in the aftermath. As we drove in, everything seemed to be quite normal but we could see the occasional house with a broken chimney, loose tiles, red tape round the property, red stickers on the doors - no longer habitable. Soon we could see sections cleared, piles of rubble, crumpled roads and pavements, fences hung with messages of love on heart shaped pieces of paper. Most of the damaged buildings were of brick, for example old churches. One building/shoe shop in particular took our attention. The whole front had been ripped off and the contents were still in full view, rows of dusty boxes with shoes sticking out and other contents strewn around. This had been like this since February. The CBD ( Central Business District ) was effectively quarantined, fenced off, no one was allowed in. The authorities are still deciding what to do about broken buildings in every direction. In fact it has now been decided to pull down nearly 1000 buildings. CHCH has to be re-built, plans and discussions are underway but it is a very long term project which will cost billions. We also visited Sumner a small town south of CHCH was was also very badly damaged. To protect the already damaged buildings hundreds of Ship Containers are placed along roads, three high to protect against falling inland cliff edges. The houses on the tops of theses cliffs are in many cases just hanging over the edge and it is only a question of time before they too come crashing down.

We will close now, could talk more - maybe we will. New Zealanders are very resiliant but these quakes have severely knocked them and they are not over yet.

Best wishes from us both

Fogg and Phileas