Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, 1

After a night in a freedom camp by a lake, we drove on through Blenheim, eschewing the numerous vineyards (we did Cloudy Bay last time), and straight to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, which we had heard about from friends Rick and Kathy. In is an incipient aviation museum, not 20 years old, that found a capable donor, none other than Sir Peter Jackson, of LOTR fame, who for some years has been a collector of WWI aircraft and memorabilia. The Centre houses, among other things, his "Knights of the Sky" exhibition, augmented by incredible displays from WETA and other sources. I have seen larger and better air museums, but none that conveyed more nor more skillfully. If you have any interest in aviation or WWI history, you must see it.

Click to enlarge and read

Perhaps later I'll go back and identify all the planes

Art Nouveau aircraft (not the tail)

The displays, like this one, all life-size and more than realistic

Very early single wing model

Uniforms, flying gear, etc.

The US' top ace was Captain Eddie Rickenbacker; here,
his flying suit and other stuff; my mother worked at Eastern
Air Lines in the 40s and had met him

"Hat in the Ring," the American volunteer group of the time

Aerodrome scenes

American Glenn Curtis realized the first seaplane, or flying boat, in 1909;
here is a WWI reconnaissance version

5,000 poppies, sewn by New Zealand women; NZ contribute greatly to the
allied cause, and suffered greatly too, both inEurope and at Gallipoli

Many war posters of interest

North Of Kaikoura

The road north of Kaikoura, toward Blenheim and Picton, was one of the South Island's most picturesque...great seascapes, colonies of fur seals, pups frolicking in pools.... Now it is mostly a many-miles-long construction site, with very few places to stop and look. And many circulation alternees, as our French friends would say. And open only during daylight hours as we passed through. There were scores of landslides in the hills/mountains above the road, and cleaning up the millions of tons of rubble, re-engineering and reconstructing, has taken many months. Work continues, but the vital link with the ferry at Picton (and tourists) is open again.

Another innovative use of containers...

Sea-bed rise

New beaches, new lagoons

Old debris

A changed landscape and seascape

Kaikoura, 2018

Kaikoura was a place we particularly enjoyed toward the end of our 2014 South Island stay, and we were sure to return in 2018. Yet more surprises awaited us. The major road work south of town might have been a clue, but we dismissed it as routine. It was not.

The Lewis Pass leads you eventually to the sea and some of the
better seascapes on the South Island

Seagull City

Toward Kaikoura

We'd hoped to see more porpoise entertainment, such as we saw
 in 2014, but there were only a few to be seen

Parked at the beautiful mile-long Norfolk Island Pine-lined
beachfront at Kaikoura

First sign of trouble: fence around the Mayfair

Shorter version: in November, 2016, there was a 7.8 earthquake
in Kaikoura; two persons died; relatively few buildings were
seriously damaged, mostly older ones; the real problem was that
two of the three roads that link Kairkoura with the outside
were severed and took many, many months to repair and restore;
and the seabed rose anywhere from 1 to 5 meters (!) in Kairkoura
and the once beautiful seascoast north of town

Storefront display on what happened...the store among those
closed

Container shoppes, as in ChCh

But life goes on, the roads are now open (during daylight hours),
and the tourists are back

Memorial garden walk...the arches are ancient whale jaw bones

The white-capped rocks give some indication of sea-bed rise;
looking toward the marina, which had to be re-dredged so the
whale-watching boats could use them again

Very old and beautiful N. I. Pines line the beach boulevard

At the marina