The Traveling Garcias: Christchurch, NZ

By this time in our cruise, we were settling-in and becoming more of aware of our surroundings. In relation to all things onboard, we were very familiar with the following locations: our stateroom, the two dining rooms, shops, pool, theater, and casino (don't worry we never played) to just mention a few. However, little did we know just how much today was going to capture us in a state of awe!!!

We pulled into Christchurch at 7am. After getting up early to eat and get ready for our 8 hour shore excursion. Considering the length of our tour, we weren't sure just how Ian was going to do, but all things considered we are proud to say that Ian did fantastic. He was a real trooper and took it all in stride as you'll see in the pictures below!!!

As we made our way off the ship, our bus transported us to the Tranz-Alpine Scenic Rail Tour train. 6 full cars later, the conductor pulled his train whistle and we were off for the rail trip of a lifetime!!! Our train made its way across the outerlimits of Christchurch's urban area. Once outside the city limits, we were going through the rural farmlands and capturing the occassional scenes of sheep, horses, cows grazing amidst their pastures. Leaving the pastureland, the Tranz-Alpine Train made good on its name as we began seeing hills transforming their shape and size to a range of mountains capped with snow extending as far as the eye could see. We would cross occassional bridges, rivers, and lakes - frequent scenes such as these only accentuated the awesome glory of God's creation among the backdrop of mountains. Imagine the scenic views from the Lord of the Rings trilogy... What a site to behold!!! Three hours later, our train stopped at Arthur's Pass - the pass by which you cross over the mountains between the East and West Coasts of New Zealand's southern island.

From there we boarded a bus which drove us back to Christchurch - a five hour bus ride. From time to time we would stop for panoramic views of New Zealand's Alps from a road's perspective. It was equally stunning in comparison from the Tranz-Alpine Train.

Along the way to Christchurch we made our way to the HomeBush Farm which has been in the Bush family for five generations. They hosted us for tea, cookies, and milk. In addition, our hosts (Colin and Bruce) demonstated the "art" of sheering sheep; however, Ian wasn't as pleased as was the tour group - he cried during the sheep sheering. Afterward we saw another demonstration consisting of how sheep dogs and their master work together to round up sheep - it was actually very interesting. We finally got back on board our bus and made our way back into the city of Christchurch. We spent a little time driving around Christchurch before making our way back to the ship.

After a long day of site-seeing we were tired, especially Ian. Unfortunately, we only had about 45 minutes to freshen up, get dressed, and make our way to dinner. Yes, it was definitely going to be an early night in preparation for the next day's adventures.