Star gazing and earthquakes

After all the fun in Wanaka, we hit the road again for Lake Tekapo.  At 710m elevation, the lake and town were covered in snow from a spring storm a couple days ago.  After leaving a snowman in the pass,

 we got to Lake Tekapo in the afternoon and booked a night trip to star gaze at the Mount John Observatory.  We were postponed a day by clouds but luckily got clear skies the next night.  The southern sky seen from a pitch black mountaintop is incredible!!  And the view of Jupiter and 3 of it's moons in the telescope was amazing.  The scary part was the bus ride up and down the mountain with the lights off!!  No light pollution is allowed on the mountain.

Last couple days in New Zealand were spent in Christchurch.  We stayed near the city centre, only a few blocks from the red zone.  For those who don't watch the news, Christchurch suffered a devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake in February of this year. 

The red zone is the part of central Christchurch that is still fenced off because the buildings are damaged and unsafe.  It's strange to see blocks and blocks of a modern city broken and abandoned.  There have also been thousands of aftershocks since the February quake.  But the people are cleaning things up and are working on rebuilding.  I suspect it will take years.

I did manage to drag Andrea to another Air Museum in Christchurch.   We did a behind-the-scenes tour of the planes they are currently restoring.  It was great but I think Andrea has now seen enough cool aircraft and jet engines.
The Rugby World Cup final was played Sunday night and the All Blacks beat France just barely.  All New Zealand is having a party!  Great way to finish our Kiwi travels.  Off to Down Under tomorrow.
Dwayne